India’s Rail Heritage Digitisation Project is on Google Arts & Culture
22 digital screens at different locations in India
The Indian Railways in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture has launched a “Rail Heritage Digitisation Project”. The project can be accessed through link:https://artsandculture.google.com/project/indian-railways. The project, which took over two years to complete, features 75 online exhibitions, over 3500 images and 200 videos.
With over 151,000 kilometres of track, 7,000 stations, 1.3 million employees and 160 years of history, the Indian Railway is one of the most celebrated railway networks in the world.
In collaboration with Google Arts & Culture, Indian Railways has been able to digitize the National Rail Museum, Rewari Steam Centre, three World Heritage Railways, the CSMT Mumbai building and other prominent aspects of country’s rail heritage.
One will be able to view heritage routes with a 360-degree panoramic view of iconic railway stations, including Kalka-Shimla, Nilgiri Mountain Railway Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, and Kangra Valley Railway.
The exhibition will also bring alive the lost stories and heroic efforts of people like the track-man, station master, and workshop engineers. Glimpses of Railway history and evolution are captured in 33 Rail Museums & Heritage Galleries, four World Heritage Sites, hundreds of buildings, bridges, locomotives, coaches, other rolling stocks, artefacts etc.
“Being a 165 year old organisation, the Railways has a lot of material which we need to preserve and leave behind for posterity. The Indian Railways has a lot of treasured moments for the world to see how technologies evolved over time: Mumbai has a special place in the Railways, being the first Railway line to be set up in India. It was way back on 16th April, 1853 when the first train ran between Bori Bunder and Thane. We will be setting up 22 digital screens across different locations in India for showcasing this historic project,” said Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways and Coal.
“This project is all about the iconic moments, the movements, and the making of Indian Railways, which today is the backbone of the country in many ways,” said Amit Sood, Director, Google Cultural Institute.
Introducing this collaborative digital project between Indian Railways and Google Arts & Culture, Rajan Anandan, Vice President, South East Asia and India, Google described it as an extension of their partnership with Indian Railways of providing public with Wi-Fi at 400 railway stations. He described it as an endeavour to bring incredible Indian Rail Heritage online.
“This partnership between the Railways and Google also has the dimension of the Wi-Fi, which we have proliferated to over 400 stations in India. This shows the potential of collaborations to serve people. The Wi-Fi that has been set up in 711 stations now, have faster Wi-Fi access than any other system in the nation. I would like to compliment the Google and RailTel team for this feat. When I was in Raipur Station, I found loads of people particularly the youth who flock to stations to enjoy the service provided. This confirms my desire that we should take Wi-Fi to over 6,000 stations to provide it to people who cannot afford Wi-Fi. We have already offered around 5,000 odd stations for public-private partnership through “Rail Sahyog” where we have invited people to come and make offers to pick up stations so as to expand it throughout the Railways,” said the minister.
Goyal said that this project was the largest cultural heritage digitization project not only in India but possibly in the Asia Pacific Region. He expressed the hope that collaborative efforts would continue to expand the project and possibly make it the largest such endeavour to preserve Railway Heritage in the world. Goyal described this project as the gift from the 13 Lakh Railways employees to the 130 crore citizens of India.
