Relic of India’s first electric railway to be dismantled

It was a technological marvel during the early 20th century in Mumbai (then Bombay), much like what the sealink is to us today.

A 129-ft railway gantry near Sion station, an important relic of the country's first electric railway, is being dismantled as you read this.

Tonight, during a planned mega block, scores of railway workers will bring down this historic structure that has been a silent witness to the city railway's growth and history for nearly a century.

Assembled at site by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (today CR) in 1925, when India's first electric railway ran, this overhead wire mast structure was touted as the largest traction span in the world by the railway engineers then. It was a marvel to have such a large electric mast of about 129 feet over eight parallel tracks at a stretch. The mast holds wires that carry the electric current which runs local trains.

"The first electric train in the country ran on the harbour line between Bombay VT and Kurla on February 3, 1925. It was at this location that the harbour line merged with the main lines and it was felt necessary to erect this large span,'' an official said.

Till last year, the railways had planned to save this relic and put a plaque on it to commemorate its existence, but with so many trains ferrying passengers running below it, the old mast could be a risky affair and it was decided to remove it with a view of safety to passengers.

"The harbour line opened exactly a century ago in 1910 between Reay Road and Kurla and it was extended from Reay Road to Bombay VT and simultaneously electrified. This became the first passenger electric railway in India,'' writes late railway historian Dr AK Arora in his book History of Bombay Suburban Railways.

After the harbour line, the railway electrification spread to the main lines and three years later in 1928, the first electric local train was opened on Western Railway too.