History of Indian Railways

Indian Railways state-owned enterprise, owned and operated by the Government of India It is one of the world's largest railway networks comprising 115,000 km of track over a route of 65,436 km and 7,172 stations.

Railways were first introduced to India in the year 1853 from Bombay to Thane. In 1951 the systems were nationalized as one unit, the Indian Railways.
Indian Railways is the world's seventh largest commercial or utility employer, by number of employees, with over 1.307 million employees.
The history of rail transport in India started in the mid-nineteenth century.  In 1848, there was not a single kilometer of railway line in India. The country's first railway, built by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR), opened in 1853, between Bombay and Thane. A British engineer, Robert Maitland Brereton, was responsible for the expansion of the railways from 1857 onward. The Allahabad-Jabalpur branch line of the East Indian Railway had been opened in June 1867. Brereton was responsible for linking this with the GIPR, resulting in a combined network of 6,400 km (4,000 mi). Hence it became possible to travel directly from Bombay to Calcutta. This route was officially opened on 7 March 1870 and it was part of the inspiration for French writer Jules Verne's book Around the World in Eighty Days.By 1875, about £95 million were invested by British companies in India guaranteed railways. By 1880 the network had a route mileage of about 14,500 km , mostly radiating inward from the three major port cities of Bombay, Madras and Calcutta.