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Adaptations in Technology: Building the Rail line of the BB and CI Railway 1852-1869

Author Affiliations

  • 1 Smt.P.N.Doshi Women’s College of Arts, Ghatkopar(W), Mumbai, INDIA

Res. J. Recent Sci., Volume 2, Issue (ISC-2012), Pages 30-35, February,2 (2013)

Abstract

There were technological transfers into India through developmental projects during the colonial period. Railway was one such important technological breakthrough which was introduced into India by the industrialized British. This paper exemplifies the adaptation of western technology and practices to Indian conditions. Since the circumstances in India, both ecological and social, were dissimilar to Britain, alternative technologies developed through a series of experiments. The eventual perfection of techniques after an elaborate process of trials and errors is explained in this paper with actual examples from the Bombay Baroda and Central India Railway Company that was built between Bombay and Ahmedabad from 1852-1869. The construction of Rail line consisted of a complex process involving many operations like the preparation of the rail bed, the placing of the plates through various gradients and curves, the laying of sleepers and ballast. In all these operations there were technological transfers, which were modified in accordance to Indian situations. Certain such examples have been highlighted in this paper.

References

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