Central Railway entering 72nd year of its formation

Central Railway entering 72nd year of its formation

Central Railway, the successor to GIP Railway completed 71 glorious years on its formation day and begins its 72nd year on 5.11.2022. Shri Anil Kumar Lahoti, General Manager, Central Railway while conveyed his formation day message and extended his heartiest greetings to railway passengers, users and railway personnel on the occasion.

The first train in Asia (and India) ran between Mumbai and Thane on Saturday, April 16, 1853. As the years passed, the Great Indian Peninsula Railway expanded. With the merger of the Indian Midland Railway Company with the GIP Railway Company in 1900, its frontiers were extended from Delhi in the North, Kanpur and Allahabad in the North-east and Nagpur in the East to Raichur in the South-east. Thus, through connection from Bombay was obtained to almost all parts of India. The route mileage of the G.I.P. Railway was 1,600. (2575 km)

On 5 November 1951, Central Railway was formed by integrating Nizam State, Scindia State and Dholpur State Railways. At present, there are 5 divisions on Central Railway i.e. Mumbai, Bhusaval, Nagpur, Solapur and Pune. Central Railway’s network is spread over 4,219 route km in the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka and has a total of 471 stations.

Central Railway has achieved many firsts in the last 71 years. Some notable achievements among them are: first Shatabdi Express, first Jan Shatabdi Express, first Tejas Express to name a few. Central Railway is in the forefront of continuous development. The originating loading which was 16.58 million tonnes at the time of formation, has now increased to 76.16 million tonnes in the year 2021-22. In the year 2022-23, CR achieved 43.97 million tonnes which is the best ever April-October freight loading. Suburban services have also increased from 519 in 1951 to 1850 (Mumbai 1810 and Pune 40) in 2022.

Mumbai’s suburban services are the lifeline of Mumbai. Central Railway has steadily increased the suburban network and today it has four corridors. The suburban services which started from 3 coaches have gradually increased to 9 coaches, 12 coaches and some services with 15 coaches. AC suburban services have also been introduced to make travel more convenient and comfortable. Apart from this, infrastructure works like construction of new railway lines, doubling, third and fourth lines, electrification, construction of bridges, construction of new stations etc. are being done at a fast pace.

Central Railway has done extensive pre-monsoon works due to which the suburban trains were running in spite of heavy rains. Shri Anil Kumar Lahoti, General Manager said that Central Railway has so far completed a record 158 km multitracking this year. After an unprecedented rainfall and damages on Neral-Matheran section in the year 2019, Central Railway staff have worked on war footing to restore the sections and services resumed from 22.10.2022. He said that CR is committed to provide safe and punctual service to its passengers and customers.