Central Railway (India)
It all began one fine summer day on 16 April 1853. It was a single step of 34 kilometers from 'Boree Bunder' (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) to Tannah' (now Thane). G.I.P. Railway’s first train ever to run on the Indian soil rolled out and changed the history of India, forever. It also marked the dawn of the Railway Age in Asia - the world's largest continent. The railway line was extended from Thane to Kalyan (20 kilometers) after about a year. From Kalyan, the railway line branched into two directions, viz. the North Eastern line leading towards Igatpuri and Bhusaval and the South Eastern line towards Pune and Solapur. It took 7 to 9 years to construct the lines through the two ghat sections (Bhor and Thull). The mountain barriers, which those lines surmounted, had only one parallel at that time in the history of railway construction - the Semmering Pass in the Austrian Alps. The period 1861 to 1870 was very important for the G.I.P. Railway, because during this period, the fast growing industrial town of Mumbai was linked with Calcutta, the imperial capital of India. During the same decade, Bombay (now Mumbai) was linked with Madras (now Chennai) as also with Nagpur. Railways soon made rapid progress and put India on the world map of rail networks. Following on the footsteps of Great Indian Peninsula Railway and East India Railway, other railway companies were set-up: Bombay, Baroda & Central India Railway (BB&CI), Madras Railway and many others. Then came a time when there were as many as 42 railway companies. After mergers it came down to 25. Later, after independence, in 1951 these 25 railways were regrouped into 9 zonal railways. Central Railway has since then grown manifold and till 2003 was a vast network of 7151 route kilometers and 10896 track kilometers connecting 812 stations. From 1.4.2003, after the reorganization of zonal railways, Pune-Kolhapur section from South Central Railway has been included in Pune division. It now has 5 divisions, viz. Mumbai, Bhusaval, Nagpur, Solapur and Pune. The route km of Central Railway after reorganization is 3766 kms and it serves the States of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh connecting 473 stations. Central Railway is the premier passenger carrying system amongst all Indian Railways. It carries over 4 lakh passengers daily to every nook and corner of the country through 510 mail/express/passenger trains. It also runs 1177 suburban services in Mumbai serving 67 stations carrying 28 lakh commuters daily.
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