Government launches Rail heritage digitisation project in collaboration with Google

Union Railway Ministry has launched Rail Heritage Digitisation Project in collaboration with Google Arts and Culture Association. It can be accessed at “https://artsandculture.google.com/project/indian-railways”. It is first-of-its-kind project that aims to showcase India’s rail heritage to the national and international audience in an online story-telling platform. It is also largest cultural heritage digitisation project in India and possibly in entire Asia Pacific Region.

Key Facts

The collaboration of Google Art and Culture and Indian Railways under this project was able  digitise National Rail Museum, Rewari Steam Centre, three World Heritage Railways, CSMT Mumbai building and other prominent aspects of country’s rail heritage. The project was completed after almost 2 years of hard work, research, inquiry and execution.
Digitization of rail heritage will make India’s rich rail-heritage and legacy digitally accessible to people in India around the world. It will also provide opportunity to contextualize artifact and other heritage assets with stories for next generation. Digital heritage provides universal access to large repository of knowledge and thus removes bottleneck of being physically there. It will also bring alive lost stories and heroic efforts of people like track-man, station master and workshop engineers to celebrate their contribution.

Background

Indian Railway is one of the most celebrated railway networks in the world with over 151,000 kilometres of track, 7,000 stations, 1.3 million employees and 160 years of history. The first railway in India was started on 16th April, 1853 between Bori bunder and Thane. Since then it has expanded to become one of largest network in world and also significantly contributed to social, technological and economic development of the country.

Month: Current Affairs - September, 2018