how many type of railway track in india
Indian Railways Indian Railways is India's national railway system. Operated by the Ministry of Railways, IR carried 8.26 billion passengers (more than 22 million passengers per day), transported 1.16 billion tons of freight, and had 8,500 stations in the 2017-18 fiscal year.[2] It is the fourth-largest railway network in the world by size, with 119,630 kilometres (74,330 mi) of total track[4] and 92,081 km (57,216 mi) of running track over a 66,687-kilometre (41,437 mi) route at the end of 2015-16.[2] Forty-five percent of its routes are electrified[5] with 25 kV AC electric traction.[2] Its track is mostly broad gauge, with short stretches of metre- and narrow-gauge track. Thirty-seven percent of its routes are double- or multi-tracked.[5]
History of rail transport in India India's first railway proposals were made in Madras in 1832.[1] The Red Hill Railway, the country's first train, ran from Red Hills to Chintadripet bridge in Madras in 1837. It was hauled by a rotary steam-engine locomotive manufactured by William Avery. Built by Arthur Cotton, the railway was primarily used to transport granite stone for road-building work in Madras.[1] In 1845, the Godavari Dam Construction Railway was built at Dowleswaram in Rajahmundry. Also built by Cotton, it supplied stone for the construction of a dam over the Godavari River.[1]