New book traces Railways journey from British era to Train18

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A new book on the history of Indian Railways chronicles the journey of the national transporter from the 1830s to the new high-speed Train 18 and Prime Minister Narendra Modis ambitious bullet train project.

The book, "A Short History of Indian Railways", has been penned by veteran journalist and author Rajendra B Aklekar.

Aklekar has already chronicled a few other books on Indian Railways.

The book's foreword has been written by eminent journalist Mark Tully, who lauds the book for its fascinating story-telling and carefully-curated topics and its interesting description on Indian Railways.

The book documents several untold stories of the first train, the role of Railways in India's freedom struggle, including incidents like the Kakori train dacoity, a plot to blow up Mahatma Gandhi's train, and also quirkier stories of rail ghosts, demons and haunted rail lines.

"A chapter on the making of India's fastest Train 18 Vande Bharat Express, metro trains and former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's fare cut principles gives this book an edge over other books written on railways," Aklekar said.

Asked what prompted him to come up with another book on the transport behemoth, he said there are several facts about the railways that people are not aware of.

"I have tried to touch these facts with journalistic perspective," he said.

"The railways in India begun its journey in the 1830s, almost 15 years before the official train run of 1853. I always wanted to write a book to tell the story of Indian Railways through its own stories.

"The entire book is just a collection of anecdotes and traces the history of railways without any comment," he said.