India's first passenger railway ran from Bombay to Thane in 1853, beginning a vast network built to serve colonial trade, troop movement and famine relief. Railway towns, workshops, junctions and grand termini such as Bombay's Victoria Terminus reshaped the urban map, while the lines drew raw materials to the ports and integrated a continental market. The system also enabled new forms of mobility, pilgrimage and migration.
The railways restructured the colonial economy and city network and remain the backbone of Indian inter-urban movement.
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