Importance of Railways in India

Indian Railway provides the most important mode of public transport in India. This is the most commonly used and cost effective long distance transport system of the country. Indian Railway is operating by Ministry of Railways. Indian Railways is touching life of almost every people across India covering 29 states and 7 Union Territories with its over 40,050 miles or 64,460 kilometers railway network as of 2011.

Indian Railways is the fourth largest railway in the World which is transporting around 7651 million passengers & over 921 MT of freight per annum (As of 2011).

Considering its importance, Railways were first introduced in India with passenger rail service from Mumbai to Thane on 16^th April, 1853 by two companies, East India Railway and Great Indian Peninsular Railway. Both the companies were created to construct railway line between Kolkata and Mumbai. Then the Governor General of India, Lord Dalhousie made plan to construct various railway lines between principle regions in India.

Indian Railways is also helping Indian economy in many ways like by providing fast and reliable transport medium for various needy articles across the country. These include Rice, Wheat, Cereals and Vegetable oils etc. Indian Railways is also transporting various petroleum products like Petrol, Diesel, Cooking Gas, Natural Gas, Kerosene etc.

The various types of railways running within our country are:

1. Duronto Express: Duronto Express, the non-stop trains which eventually running faster than Rajdhani Express between state capitals & major cities.
2. Rajdhani Express: The Rajdhani Express, the full AC train which connects all major cities to our capital New Delhi. It is running at over 150 km per hour.
3. Shatabdi and Jan Shatabdi Express: These are only chair car trains which connect inter cities in the neighbouring states.
4. Garib Rath Express: These are trains which has AC 3 tier facilities at the lower cost in compare to different train in the same class.
5. Superfast Express: These trains are running more over 55 km per hours and have few stops in their travelling routes.
6. Express and Mail Train: These are common kinds of trains which have more stops than Express trains in India but have lower fare than it.
7. Fast Passenger and Passenger Train: These common trains have lowest fares and have sitting, sleeper class facilities. These trains stop at almost every station.
8. Suburban Trains: The Suburban trains are running in the major cities in India like Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai etc. These trains have only sitting facilities and fare starts at only Rs. 5.00. The Mumbai Suburban trains have 1^st Class facilities.

The need of railways is felt by every Indian. Every people in India can get every useful item in time. Our Railways is supporting our economy by providing lakhs of jobs to people and it is also setting up various Locomotive units across the country.