Indian Railways: The Massive Transport System Of India

Indian Railways: The Massive Transport System of India

SAFALTA EXPERT Published by: Vikrant Singh Updated Mon, 17 Oct 2022 11:07 AM IST

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Do you know that the Indian railways are the world’s 4th largest transport system? Yes, it is true, here we are going to discover more interesting facts about Indian railways which you might have not known. So let’s begin, apart from being the world’s 4th largest and Asia’s 2nd largest train system which is been used for traveling and transport within the country. But you might be wondering which comes on number 1 in terms of the largest train system it is “China”, China has the world’s largest train support system. If you are preparing for competitive exams then you can download our General Knowledge Free Ebook Download Now.

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THE BEGINNING OF INDIAN RAILWAYS

Did you know when railways started in India? Let us tell you everything about this whole system, its history and how this whole system works, etc.

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The main motive for launching the railways in India was to carry goods from one place to another or we can also say it was the easiest way for transportation and this is how it all started the first railway proposal for Indian railways was made in Madras on 1832 and it was the first transport train of India which ran between red cliff to chintadripet in madras. Later the demand for passenger trains also arrived as the safer mode of travel for long routes in India, later than the passenger train was introduced by the Britishers and the first passenger train started on 16th April 1853, this train of Indian railways was tracked between Bombay (currently Mumbai) to Thane. It was dedicated by Lord Dalhousie and this train consisted of 14 carriages and was pulled by three steam locomotive engines those engines were named Sahib, Sindh, and Sultan. It traveled around 34 km and carried about 400 people later the track of this railway line was increased in1884 to Kaylan and this is how the first railway bridge was built on the Ulhās river, this resulted in more development of trains and railways tracks this how the railways were extended towards the south and the east of India. Later changes were made to the trains according to the needs like lights inside the train coaches and toilets and so on.

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THE MODERN INDIAN RAILWAYS

But now we see the trains in modern India are way more advanced in terms of technology and services. Now Indian railways are divided into 4 zones (North, South, East, and West) these zones are managed by the government of India and the state governments of different states. Now in India electric trains which were more advanced were also been introduced and these are the metro trains that firstly started in Kolkata and this train network runs within the state. Now the bullet train proposal is also stated in India and for those who want to see an interesting slice of India, we would highly recommend traveling by train, the way most Indians travel around the country. The trains are usually very punctual and efficient. Over 20,000 trains run on a daily basis in India.

TOP 10 LEADING RAILWAYS OF THE WORLD

COUNTRY	Length (km)	% of the total electrified	Historical peak length (km)	Area (km2) per km track	Nationalized or private
USA	220,480	0.92%	408,833	43.2	Both
CHINA	150,000	66.67%	150,000 (in 2021)	63.80	Nationalized
RUSSIA	85,600	51.17%	150,000	199.98	Nationalized
INDIA	70,225	82.36%	74,120 (in 1947)	48.23	Nationalized
CANADA	49,422	0.20%		214.48	Private
GERMANY	40,625	55.38%	64,000	9.26	Both
ARGENTINE	36,966	0.51%	47,000	77.45	Nationalized
AUSTRALIA	33,168	10.23%	32,929	231.91	Both
BRAZIL	29,817	30.27%	29,303	299.6	Both
FRANCE	29,273	53.59%	42,500	22.78	Nationalized