Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu released the book titled “Indian Railway- The weaving of a National Tapestry” jointly authored by Shri Bibek Debroy (Member, NITI Aayog) Shri Sanjay Chadha (Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce) & Ms. Vidya Krishnamurthi.

 

In addition, Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu also launched Hi-speed free Wi-Fi services for the visitors at National Rail Museum. Chairman,

Railway Board, Shri A. K. Mital, the three authors of the book, Shri Ashwani Lohani, CMD, Air India and other Railway Board Members and senior officials were also present on the occasion.

 

Minister of Railways said that It is really an honour to release a book by authored by Shri Bibek Debroy and his colleagues. This book by Shri Bibek Debroy is a great contribution for Indian Railways. We can shape the future of Indian Railways by linking the past through this book. Interest of organisation cannot be overlooked..We are working on how to revitalize the organisation. We are working for making Railways as an efficient organisation, modern and tech savvy. We need to take many steps at the same time. All issues ranging from HR, Environment, finance, technological up gradation are to be taken care of. Learning from the past and shaping the future should be our priority. This book would add lot of memories of Indian Railways. Referring to the WiFi services made available at National Rail Museum, Shri Suresh Prabhu said that this will attract more visitors to the Museum

 

Shri Bibek Debroy, Member NITI Aayog said that This book traverses the timeline from 1830-1947. The book is written in a storytelling manner. The book narrates some anecdotes of Indian Railways History. The cover of the book has a steam loco which used to haul meter gauge loco in Rajputana Malwa region. Readers can expect mirth reading this book. In the book some uncovered nuggets were chronicled which were not known to Public.”

 

Chairman Railway Board Shri A K Mittal said that This Book on History of Indian Railways will be able to throw light on many hitherto unknown facts about Indian Railways.

 

Backgrounder:

About the Book:

The theme of this book is the historical development of railways in India, organized into chapters dealing with different periods of development in chronological order. It builds its foundations from periods prior to 1853, when the first commercial passenger Railway was inaugurated. like the Red Hill Railways in the south, which were primarily captive freight systems

 

The authors wanted to create a cross between an academic book (well written, but “dry and boring”) and a coffee table book (“light in text”). The outcome is a narrative built around a series of anecdotes of railway history, which manages to convey considerable amounts of information in a light, conversational manner. True to its mandate it does not bring this obsession to esoterica. 

 

The story begins with the early plans for building railways in the Indian sub-continent in the 1830s, continues with the debates in the 1840s and the advent of the railways in the 1850s and 1860s. The penultimate chapter, which covers the period of consolidation and change during the 1870s onwards, is the most absorbing. The last chapter covers the period from the beginning of 20th century until Independence. The book is perhaps best characterised as Indian Railway History – An anecdotal version.

 

While some information is quite well documented elsewhere, but the last chapter which commences from the beginning of the twentieth century onwards provides valuable nuggets of information on diverse topics, including early movies with railway themes, stories behind the well-known railway booksellers A.H.Wheeler and Higginbotham’s; and the history of railway police forces.

 

True to its reader-friendly style the book is light reading and a valuable collection to the most well documented organisation, perhaps in the World – which is our Indian Railways

 

About WiFi Services in National Rail Museum:

The National Rail Museum, New Delhi, became a high speed RailWire Wi-fi zone today, 30^th March 2017, when Minister of Railways, Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu dedicated the facility to the visitors of this heritage site. The Wi-Fi facility has been commissioned by RailTel in association with Google for providing high speed state of the art world class internet experience to the hundreds of people visiting the National Rail Museum every day.

 

The service built over the fiber network of RailTel is designed to offer high-speed broadband like experience to users. Along with experiencing the rich history of Indian Railways, the visitors of this museum will now be able to stay connected to high speed internet and easily stream a high definition video, download a book or a new game. A total number of 23 access points, 11 access switches and 1 Fiber switch have been used to create the state-of-the art Wi Fi facility at the National Rail Museum.

 

RailTel  is also in process of providing fast Wi-Fi at 5 more tourists sites of Delhi namely Red Fort, Humayun Tomb, Safdarjung Tomb, QutubMinar and Rajpath Lawns being maintained by Archaeological Survey of India. Wi-Fi services to visitors are being provided under ‘Railwire’,the retail Broadband distribution model of RailTel. Designed to offer users the best Internet experience, Railwire Wi-Fi will be available to any user who has a working mobile connection on a smartphone.

 

In year 2016, RailTel commissioned Railwire Fast Wi-Fi services at 110 railway stations with 115 stations enabled till date. The services are being used by over 6 million (60 lakh) users monthly. Extending the project we are in process of providing this service at another 200 stations during the current year.

 

In parallel to providing Wi-Fi at urban areas,RailTel is also expanding Railwire Wi-Fi services at 200 rural railway stations across the country. These stations shall also be provided with a Digital Service Centre to provide various E-gov services, Digital literacy & various online services for the rural population.

 

RailTel Corporation a "Mini Ratna (Category-I)" PSU under Ministry of Railways is one of the largest neutral telecom services providers in the country owning a Pan-India optic fiber network covering all important towns & cities of the country and several rural areas covering 70% of India’s population. RailTel is in the forefront in providing nationwide Broadband Telecom & Multimedia Network in all parts of the country in addition to modernization of Train operations and administration network systems for Indian Railways. With its Pan India high capacity network, RailTel is working towards creating a knowledge society at various fronts and has been selected for implementation of various mission-mode Govt. of India projects in the telecom field.

 

 

 

AKS/MKV/AK

 

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