Author, rail historian, newsman
Rafique sir walks the streets of Mazgaon like a king. He has a story on its every corner, every building, every face we met. What was meant to be a casual visit after a long gap to his humble residence at the Khan Building complex at Mazgaon in Mumbai the other day turned out into […]
The Mumbai inundation. Pic by former colleague Vijayanand Gupta 21 years ago. 2005 was a defining year for Mumbai’s media. It was the battle of the biggies who were set to launch their Mumbai editions starting with the Hindustan Times, DNA and Mumbai Mirror. I had joined the Hindustan Times as their Mumbai correspondent covering […]
20 years of Mumbai serial train blasts I still remember that evening vividly. It was drizzling. I was in the newsroom at Mahim when I received the first alert. I rushed to Mahim station and did not know what I was walking into. What I saw at the station, I still cannot forget. Even today, […]
Mumbai has lost a quiet custodian of its railway heritage. Subhash C. Dixit, the man who breathed life back into the city’s steam locomotives one final time, has passed away. In 2002, as Indian Railways marked 150 years since the country’s first railway journey, two WP-class steam giants — No. 7161 and No. 7015 — […]
The renewal of Alstom’s five-year maintenance contract for 250 WAG-12B freight locomotives is more than a service agreement. It illustrates a fundamental shift in Indian Railways’ procurement philosophy: manufacturers are no longer expected to simply build trains—they are increasingly being asked to maintain them over much of their operational life. The WAG-12B project itself was […]
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has launched a first-of-its-kind ‘Weekly Public Transport Day’ in Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), encouraging the district’s nearly two lakh daily commuters to leave their private vehicles at home and use public transport every Friday. Weekly public transport day.. but in reality there is no public transport in BKC. […]
Mumbai’s suburban railway, still the undisputed king of affordable transit In a city where commuting costs are always under discussion, Mumbai’s suburban railway network continues to stand apart as the most economical way to get around the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), and the fare data makes this case with striking clarity. As per assessments made […]
The divide among the Mumbai rail commuter has today deepened. Unlike earlier when commuters had division of various classes, the first, second, the various categories like ladies, luggage and the disabled ones fighting for space in single 12-car train, the division has now moved between trains itself- the AC and the non-AC ones. And the […]
In a move that has struck a chord with railway enthusiasts and historians alike, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday- April 16, on the occasion of 173 years of Indian Railways, shared what is believed to be one of the oldest available authentic images of the historic Thane railway bridge and an early train. […]
The Pink Book — once the definitive annual guide to Indian Railways’ project spending — is now gone in its consolidated form, forcing researchers to piece together data from multiple zonal documents. The Railway ‘Pink Book’ is gone in its regular consolidated format For decades, the Indian Railways’ annual “Pink Book” served as the most […]