Madurai :

Marking the completion of 160 years of the Indian Railways, the Madurai railway division has organised a photo exhibition with a set of 28 posters narrating the history, heritage and salient features. The exhibition, which began on Sunday will go up to April 2 and is arranged at the concourse area of the eastern entry.

Addressing reporters, divisional railway manager, A K Rastogi who inaugurated the exhibition said the photo exhibition showcases the evolution and growth of the Indian Railways from 1853. The exhibition is divided into topics such as interesting information on Indian Railways; evolution and heritage; cultural significance and the resources displaying its indigenous production units which keep the railways self-sufficient among others.

The segment of interesting facts contains information like 11,000 trains plying across the country on any given day carrying 2.20 crore people. With 63,940 km track route, it is the fourth largest in the world connecting people across the country as well as the backbone of the economic growth.

The heritage and evolution part shows the picture of the first train that chugged between Bombay and Thane – the 34 km stretch – in 1853 and its earlier versions of coaches hauled by bullocks. The consecutive pictures show how the railways transformed from steam engines to electric locomotives at present.

The pictures under the title Railways connecting cultures, show that how the tracks traverse across the cultures in the country with a special mention of Vivek Express, the longest train connecting Kanyakumari with Dibrugarh in Assam. The train covering 4,200 km connects Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar and Assam in its 82-hour journey.

The heritage section also includes luxury trains such as Palace on Wheels, Golden Chariot and the Deccan Odyssey. The last segment of the exhibition displays the assets of railways like Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW), Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi (DLW), Integral Coach Factory (ICF) Chennai, Rail Coach Factory (RCF) Kapurthala and Rail Wheel Factory (RWF), Bangalore.

One of the pictures shows the international collaborations of Indian Railways at Tanzania, Iraq, Sri Lanka and Mozambique and the export of locomotives to countries like Vietnam, Tanzania, Mali, Senegal, Togo and Sri .

The exhibition is open from 8.30am to 6pm and entry for the visitors is free.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Madurai / TNN / March 31st, 2014