Indian Railway-The weaving of a National Tapestry released

Indian Railway-The weaving of a National Tapestry: Bibek Debroy, Sanjay Chadha & Vidya Krishnamurthi

The Union Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu on 30 March 2017 released a book on the Indian Railways – ‘Indian Railway-The weaving of a National Tapestry’.

The book was jointly authored by Bibek Debroy (Member, NITI Aayog), Sanjay Chadha (Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce) and Vidya Krishnamurthi.

About Indian Railway-The weaving of a National Tapestry

•    The theme of this book is the historical development of railways in India.

•    The book is divided into chapters dealing with different periods of development in chronological order.

•    It builds its foundations from periods prior to 1853, when the first commercial passenger railway was inaugurated.

•    The authors wanted to create a cross between an academic book and a coffee table book. The outcome is a narrative built around a series of anecdotes of railway history.

•    The book manages to convey considerable amounts of information in a conversational manner.

•    The story begins with the early plans for building railways in the Indian sub-continent in the 1830s, continues with the debates in the 1840s and the advent of the railways in the 1850s and 1860s.

•    The penultimate chapter, which covers the period of consolidation and change during the 1870s onwards, is the most absorbing.

•    The last chapter covers the period from the beginning of the 20th century until independence. The book is perhaps best characterised as Indian Railway History – An anecdotal version.