Irrigation was only carried out by means of canals in Bengal, Agra and Oudh, Punjab, Bombay, and Madras provinces, and expenditures on irrigation were much lower than major industrialization projects. While million sterling was spent on railroads in India in , only 24 million sterling was spent on irrigation. The Illustrated London News 24 Jan. British colonial authorities argued that it was the climate and failure of rains that caused failure of crops and famine.
Similarly, some scholars have argued, for example, that the famines were caused by environmental factors such as scarcity of water and poor soil quality, and that this guaranteed that investments in agriculture were excessively risky.
But infrastructure development always involves a process of overlaying human technologies upon natural systems and landscapes. The Illustrated London News 24 Jan II, ed. Kumar Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Dreze and A. Between and , India suffered 24 major famines, a number higher than in any other recorded year period, resulting in millions of deaths. This exhibition—written by sociologist Naresh Chandra Sourabh and economic historian Timo Myllyntaus—describes the environmental and social factors that contributed to these cataclysmic events, situating their causes and costs within the complex natural and cultural contexts of nineteenth-century colonial India.
He earned his first two degrees at Helsinki University and a Ph. His research interests stretch from economic and social history to environmental history. He has also published around one hundred scientific articles and fifty popular articles.
Myllyntaus has directed more than a dozen research projects, participated in activities of various scientific organizations including the European Society for Environmental History, and acted as a peer-reviewer for several journals. He received his M. Previously, Dr. Skip to main content. Infrastructure and railroads Railroads were introduced to India for quicker and more efficient access to trade.
The mountain trains, now called as the toy trains were first proposed in However, the first mountain train started its maiden trip on The first mountain train of the country is the Darjeeling Himalayan Railways. Later, many other mountain train routes were linked connecting highland towns with the rest of the country.
First toilets were introduced in the first class coaches in Only by , the lower classes were provided toilets. By the beginning of this century, Indian Railways started to make profit. Under the rule of Lord Curzon, the railway department started to flourish.
During the First World War, the service of Indian railways degraded monumentally. The fund and other resources of the railway department were routed to the war needs by the British government in India.
This era saw the first electrical train. The size of the system grew and started serving an average of million passengers, each year. During the final years of British rule, the railway department was financially crashing as, people preferred wagons instead of rails.
After Independence and separation of states, numerous rail routes were built to connect different regions.
The first train between India and Pakistan started in All the trains were electrified and modernized. This was the bloom period for Indian Railways. In , the first enquiry counter was set up in Mumbai suburban station to indicate the upcoming trains. It was a crude manual system in which the staffs turned the clock hands to denote the next train timing, every minutes.
Technology started to gain more momentum and metro system started in India. The major revolution of Indian Railway , luxury train started in India. The run of luxury train started with Palace on Wheels in by Government of Rajasthan and Tourism department of India.
Below, you will find a detailed history of luxury train in India. By , the countrywide network provided reservation and ticketing system to Indian railways. Metros and monorails are thriving within cities. Now, the train tracks cover more than , km of area in India and special amenities like Wi-Fi, customer information system, ergogenic designs and green technologies have taken Indian Railways to the next level.
Recent developments of railway system include technological amenities in unreserved class , high horsepower electric locomotive, GPS based passenger information system, sliding doors, private catering services and many others. There is always a next step for Indian Railway. By , more than stations around the world would receive free Wi-Fi service.
The technology team is diving deep into finding greener source of powers. Today, the Indian Railways manages the track more than , km of the country. The changing face of Indian Railways is preparing for the future with the much more initiative.
Also Read: World-Class! The first steam engine was used on this railway line. The British had their meaning behind this, but they laid the railway line. There was a severe drought in the northwestern province of British India between — Currently, this location is known by Uttar Pradesh. Due to the drought, the East India Company had to spend around one crore rupees in relief operations in the North West Province at that time. As a result, the then British government began preparations to build a canal from the Ganges in drought-prone areas.
The responsibility of constructing this canal was entrusted to Colonel Cottle. The British started preparing, but the path was not easy. Removing the canal over the Sonaliriver en route was a matter of greatest dilemma for the British engineers. In such a situation, Kottle planned to drain the canal from over the river by constructing the Sonali aqueduct. British engineers started the construction of the bridge and during the excavation huge amount of debris came out from here.
The British planned to dump this debris in Kaliyar, but it was not easy to carry so much debris at that time. The problem was that with horses and mules, it would cost too much time with heavy costs. Hughes' book suggests that this was also built by E. Wilson, and was probably a four-wheeled tank engine T? It later became GIPR loco 9. A third locomotive, Vulcan, is said to have been used by the GIPR for material hauling and shunting duties in as well.
On November 18, , a locomotive hauled some coaches on a trial run from Bori Bunder to Thana. This probably counts as the first "real" train to run in India. In the s, when the first proposals for railways in India were being debated in Great Britain, there was intense lobbying in support of these proposals by banks, traders, shipping companies, and others who had a strong interest in seeing railways be formed in India.
These supporters prevailed upon the British Parliament to create the Guarantee System, whereby any company that constructed railways in India was guaranteed a certain rate of interest on its capital investment.
This guarantee was honoured by the East India Company which then controlled large parts of India. The railways that were formed with such agreements governing them were called guaranteed railways. Note: This chronology is intended as a general overview for non-specialists to give them a feel for some of the interesting and complex events that shaped the development of railways in India.
Many line openings are mentioned to give an idea of the geographic spread of railway services. Dates in most cases are those for when the completed lines were open to traffic; usually sections of the line may have been opened years earlier, and might even have supported revenue traffic in parts. Dates are often somewhat uncertain because of varying reports in different sources, or lack of documentation, hence in many cases they may be off by a couple of years. Anyone seeking reliable and specific information and more detail is strongly urged to consult the reference works listed in the guide to historical research and the section on books about IR history.
The chronology continues in Part 2, listing events from to Part 3 lists events from to Part 4 covers to The opening of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway will be remembered by the natives of India when the battlefields of Plassey, Assaye, Meanee, and Goojerat have become landmarks of history.
This remained a dream on paper. Survey work carried out for Bombay-Kalyan line and an extension up the Malay Ghat for proposed connections to Khandwa and Pune. May 8: Madras Railway Company is formed. East India Railway company is formed. Agreed upon in March, finalized on August The line is ready by November, and on the 18th of November, a trial run of the Bombay-Thane trip 35 km is held. Some accounts suggest another locomotive, Vulcan might have also been used for shunting operations here.
The Madras Guaranteed Railway Company is formed. Initial scheduled services consist of two trains each way between Bombay and Thane and later Bombay and Mahim via Dadar. Madras Railway incorporated; work begins on Madras-Arcot line.
Lord Dalhousie's famous Railway Minute of April 20 lays down the policy that private enterprise would be allowed to build railways in India, but that their operation would be closely supervised by the government. The section is soon extended to Pundooah. Howrah station at the time is simply a tin shed with a small booking office, and a single narrow platform. Dapoorie viaduct is completed. GIPR opens its first workshops at Byculla.
Stations are classified into 4 groups on some railways, according to traffic and the proportion of European and Indian passengers. Thane-Kalyan line extended to Vasind on the north-east.
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