Western Railway (India)
The
Western Railway is one of the 16 zones of
Indian Railways, and is among the busiest
railway networks in
India. Major railway lines of which
Indian Railways which come under Western Railways are:
Ratlam -
Mumbai Central,
Ahmedabad -
Vadodara and
Palanpur -
Ahmedabad.
The Western Railway was not created on
November 5 1951 by the merger of several state-owned railways, including the
Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway (BB&CI), and the
Saurashtra,
Rajputana and
Jaipur railways. The BB&CI Railway was itself inaugurated in 1855, starting with the construction of a 29 mile (47 km)
broad gauge track from
Ankleshwar to
Utran in
Gujarat state on the west coast. In 1864, the railway was extended to
Mumbai.
Subsequently, the project was further extended beyond
Vadodara in a north easterly direction towards Godhra, Ratlam,
Nagda and thereafter northwards towards Mathura, to eventually link with the
Great Indian Peninsular Railway, now the
Central Railway, which had already started operating in Mumbai in 1853. In 1883, a
metre gauge railway system, initially linking Delhi with
Agra,
Jaipur and
Ajmer, was established.
The first suburban service in
Mumbai with steam traction was introduced in April 1867. It was extended to
Churchgate in 1870. By 1900 45 trains in each direction were carrying over one million passengers annually.
The railways of several
princely states were also integrated into the Western Railway. The
Gaekwars of Baroda built the
Gaekwar's Baroda State Railway (GBSR), which was merged into the BB&CI in 1949. Several railways of western Gujarat, including the
Bhavnagar,
Kathiawar,
Jamnagar &
Dwarka,
Gondal, and
Morvi railways were merged into the
Saurashtra Railway in 1948. The
Jodhpur and Bikaner Railway was taken over by
Rajasthan state in 1949, after the western portion was ceded to the government of
Pakistan.
In
2002 the Jaipur and Ajmer divisions of the Western Railway became part of the newly-created
North Western Railway, and in April 2003 the
Kota division of the Western Railway became part of the newly-created
West Central Railway.
On July 11,
2006 the Western Railway was a target of suspected terrorist attacks. Seven explosions occurred during rush hour (6-7pm) killing 190 and injuring more than 300 people. The blasts occurred at various stations including
Bhayandar,
Khar,
Matunga,
Mahim,
Jogeshwari and
Borivali. Initial reports indicate that only the first-class compartments of the trains were targeted.
Western Railway serves the entire state of
Gujarat, the eastern portion of
Rajasthan, some portions of Western
Madhya Pradesh, and coastal
Maharashtra. The Western coast of India served by Western Railway has a number of ports, most important among them being
Kandla,
Okha,
Porbandar,
Bhavnagar in Gujarat state and
Mumbai in Maharashtra.
The suburban section of
Western Railway in Mumbai extends from Churchgate, the city's business and residential centre, to
Dahanu Road covering a distance of 120 km and 38 stations. The first electric train on this section was introduced in 1928 between Churchgate and
Borivali.
The gauge-wise kilometrage of Western Railways at present, is as under:
| Gauge | Length | | Broad Gauge | 4,305 km |
| Metre Gauge | 4,838 km |
| Narrow Gauge | 877 km |
| Total | 10,020 km |
It is the most electrified railroad system in the Indian Railways making it the most important railroad system in India.
The Western Railway has its headquarters at
Churchgate in
Mumbai. It also operates the Western Line of the
Mumbai suburban railway system. The railway system is divided into six operating divisions: Bhavnagar, Mumbai, Ratlam, Rajkot, Vadodara, and Ahmedabad.
*
Official site*
A customized Google Map showing High Resolution Satellite Images of Mumbai's suburban Western Railway
