First of all India was the colony of British.British looked to India as a source of rawmaterials. So to carry these raw materials to port ,they needed some kind of communication.Railway was the best way forward.Secondly railway was developed as a source of profit for Britist capital class.They were promised of the 5% return for their investment.Railway acted as source of oppression by reaching to large number of people.Railway even acted as a pacifier in the event of rebellion so that soldiers can be reached at the trouble site within short time.Apart from these negatives there were some positives as Railway acted a source of unification for the people of India as many people could travel to remote places.The feeeling of Real India or One India becametrue.Ithelped in the freedom struggle to a large extent.A plan for a rail system in India was first put forward in 1832, but no further steps were taken for more than a decade. In 1844, the Governor General of India Lord Harding allowed private entrepreneurs to set up a rail system in India. Two new railway companies, Great Indian Peninsular Railway (GIPR) and East Indian Railway (EIR), were created and the East India Company was asked to assist them. Interest from investors in the UK led to the rapid creation of a rail system over the next few years. The first train in India became operational on 22 December 1851, and was used for the hauling ofconstruction material in Roorkee. A year and a half later, on 16 April 1853, the first passenger train service was inaugurated between Bori Bunder, Bombay and Thane. Covering a distance of 34 km (21 miles), it was hauled by three locomotives, Sahib, Sindh and Sultan. This was the formal birth of railways in India.