Western Railway

Western Railway in its present form came into existence on 5th November 1951 by the merger of its forerunner, the erstwhile Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway (BB&CI), with other State Railways viz, Saurashtra, Rajputana, and Jaipur. The BB&CI Railway was itself incorporated in 1855, starting with the construction of a 29-mile broad gauge track from Ankleshwar to Utran in Gujarat state on the West Coast. In 1864, the railway was extended up to Mumbai. Subsequently, the project was further extended beyond Baroda in a northeasterly direction towards Godhra, Ratlam, Nagda, and thereafter northwards towards Mathura to eventually link with the Great India Peninsula Railway, now Central Railway, which had already started operating in Mumbai in 1853. In 1883, a Metre Guage Railway system, initially linking Delhi with Agra, Jaipur, and Ajmer, was established.