Search engine major Google on Tuesday celebrated the 160th anniversary of India's first passenger train travel with a doodle.
Though not an interactive one, the doodle, prominently displayed on the company's India home page, has the image of a locomotive train. The image replaces the first ' O'of the word Google. However, there is a small discrepancy. The first rail was pulled by three locomotives instead of one as depicted in the doodle.
On 16th April 1853, the first passenger train service begun between the stations of Bori Bunder in Bombay (now Mumbai) and Thane. The train travelled a distance of 34 kilometres taking a time of around 25 minutes. The train had three locomotives - Sahib, Sindh and Sultan.
The history of rail transport in India goes all the way back to 1832, when the idea of rail travel was mooted.
The first rail line came up near Chintadripet Bridge (in modern-day Chennai) in 1836 on an "experimental basis". A year later, a nearly 6 km long rail line was established between Red Hills and the stone quarries near St. Thomas Mount.
However, it wasn't until 1853-54, three years before the Sepoy Mutiny, when two new railway companies, Great Indian Peninsular Railway (GIPR) and East Indian Railway (EIR), were created. This is when the so called modern railways of the present day came into existence.
According to reports, GIPR was asked to setup tracks near Mumbai, and EIR was to start work near Calcutta (now Kolkata). The first rail travel from Eastern Indian Railway section began on August 15,1854.
Thus, the first train in India became operational on 22 December, 1851, for localised hauling of canal construction materials in Roorkee.