RAILWAYS were first attempted to be intro duced into India in 1845, by two companies, termed the East India and the Great Indian Peninsular Railway Company, but the projectors found it necessary to apply to Government for aid, and Government guaranteed 5 per cent. for a term of 99 years, giving the land. Sir Macdonald Stephenson, a civil engineer of Great Britain, in 1843 had suggested railwaya for India, during the administration of Lord Ellenborough, and Mr. Bird, his successor, took up the subject. It was not encouraged either by the Court of Directors or the London mercantile cominnnity. Subse quently, during Lord Hardinge's administration and on his recommendation, the Court of Directors granted the land for a line front Calcutta. to Delili, with a guarantee of 4 per cent. of interest on five millions sterling, and this was the first of the guarantees which have since been extended to canals, irrigation channels, and other railroads. The first to progress were the East Indian and Great Indian Peninsular Railways, when con tracts were signed in August 1819. During Lord Dalhousie's administration, the railway schemes made progress, and on the 18th November 1852, Bombay saw the first passenger train run. On the 20th April 1853, Lord Dalhousie, in a minute, urged their extension for strategic purposes, and on political and commercial grounds, and he mapped out certain trunk lines.
In 1880, the railways were as under :— Indian, runs up the valley of the Ganges from Calcutta (Howrah) as far as Dehli, with a branch to Jubbulpur ; (2) the Great Indian Peninsula, hieli starts front Bombay, and sends one arm north-cast to Jubbulpur, with a branch to Nagpur, and another south-east to the frontier of Madras; (3) the Madras line, with its terminus similarly at .Madras city, and two arms running respectively to the Great Indian Peninsula junction at Raichore, and to Beypur on the opposite coast, with branches to Bangalore and Bellary ; (4) the Ondli and Rohilkhand, connecting Lucknow and Moradabad with Cawnpur and Benares ; (5) the Bombay, Baroda, and Central India ; (6) the Sind, Panjah, and Dehli, consisting of three sectious, one in Lower Sind, another froiu Delili to Lahore, and the third from Lahore to Multan ; (7) the South Indian ; (8) the Eastern Bengal.
The Indus Valley Railway starts from a .point six miles west of Multan on the Panjab Railway, and runs through Shujabad and Ballawulpur to Sukkur, and thence to Kotree.
The most important engineering works con nected with Indian railways were on the Thul Ghat, by an incline of nine miles and a quarter, in the course of which the northern branch of the G. I. P. Railway Attains elevatien of 972 feet.
The southeni branch Is taken through the moun tains of the Ghat, by an incline nearly 16 miles long, veith a total elevation of 1831 feet, by a serious of cuttings, tunnels, viaducts, and em bankments, which aro only rivalled by those on the Thul Ghat.
The tnost iinportmit section, completed in 1870, was from Soliagpur to Jubbulpur on the G. 1. l'• line, by meant of which railway communicatio ^ between Bombay and Calcutta was established. Next in importance was the coin/Action of the Sutlej bridge, by which lAhore and Debit were joined. The year 1871 saw Bombay city joined to Mtulras by the linking together of the %arm and the G. I. I'. railways at Raichore. Thus the system of trunk lines, originally laid down by 1,,onl Dalhousie, may be regarded as completed. Com mencing at Negapatam, the most southern ter minus of the present Madras system. and proceed ing by Bombay, Jubbulpur, Allahabad, awl Lahoro to Niihau, on the Indult, a continuous length of about 2800 miles of railway waa fortned.
The cost of the several Indian lines varied con siderably. The East Indian, 1503 miles, includ ing 410 of double line, cost £20,000 per mile; the Great Indian Peninsular, 1280 miles, including 325 miles of double line, cost £18,360, And the Bombay and Baroda cost £18,720; but the Madras line cost only £12,300, and the narrow gauge South Indian £6780. The guaranteed companies have raised £97,173,822.