HALT STATION INDIA:
THE DRAMATIC TALE OF THE NATION'S FIRST RAIL LINES by Rajendra B. AklekarMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The outcome a passionate research and journey down the history behind the Indian Railways. Luck would have it that Bombay (now Mumbai) become the first Indian city to have operational railways. The first engine should have landed in Calcutta (now Kolkatta) and should have been the first city in India to run trains, but fate intervened and sent that engine to Australia resulting in a destiny with Bombay laying claim to the first railways in India.
Interestingly unlike many who believe Victoria Terminus (now a mouthful Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus) was not the station from where the first train was flagged off, but it was Bori Bunder, closer to the port from where the first train was flagged off. So technically the mantel of the oldest station in Bombay falls on Sion. Sion was the first station to be built and it was built not because something was to be loaded or people were expected to get in, but because the engines needed to be watered. Yes the one tends to forget that the steam engines of the yore needed to refilled with water at regular intervals.
One of the key challenge that the engineers faced was to lay the tracks in the swampy region between "Matoonga" and "Coorla" (and hence the C which still represents a Kurla local in the Central line) alongside the Duncan Causeway (now Mankikar Marg).
The author lovingly describes every station between VT and Kalyan and highlights the relics that can be looked for in each station. The author also covers, but as quick as a fast train, the stations from Churchgate to Virar/Vasai, but the book definitely belongs to the central railway and the partly the harbour.
A must read for history buffs. Hats off to Mr. Rajendra Aklekar
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