3 Review(s)

Birth of railways constituted an important landmark in thehistory of India. They were launched and promoted by theBritish. It was undertaken by an associated enterprise withthe capital coming from the share holders of a privatecompany and the Government acting as a supervisor andguarantor against the financial loss of the former. One suchprivate company the Great Indian Peninsula RailwayCompany (henceforth referred as GIPR) was first to run atrain for public on the Indian sub continent on 16th April1853 and later became the nucleus of the current CentralRailway.The aim of the book is to give a detailed and historicalnarrative regarding the construction and growth of therailways by the GIPR in India, an appreciation of thebackground against which the first tracks were laid andthe expansion of the system since then. The large numberof histories of the Railways and few on the GIPR havebeen published in times past is an indicator of its importance.However, there is one aspect of the GIPR which has notyet explored in detail that is the Contract System adoptedby the Company for the construction of the railways. Forthe construction of the railway lines, Great Indian PeninsulaRailway Company had followed the system of contractsand the lines were divided into different sections whichwere let to different contractors and each contract was givennumbers. Total 19 Contracts were signed with contractorswhich are discussed in detailed in the book.