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→History: Gov. Repeal Bill info added with references
Formed in 1845, it was not until 1849 (at the urging of the then Governor, Lord Dalhousie) that the EIC sanctioned the GIPR to construct an experimental line, built to the broad gauge of 5' 6", eastward from Bombay. The first sod was turned on 31 October 1850 and the first locomotive was used in construction on 22 December 1851, but the first passenger train in India did not run until 16 April 1853, when a train, with 14 railway carriages and 400 guests, left [[Bombay]] bound for [[Thane]], hauled by three locomotives: ''Sindh, Sultan,'' and ''Sahib''. The 21 mile journey took an hour and fifteen minutes over the first section of the GIPR to be opened.
By 1859, GIPR was tasked with "the construction and working of the following lines, all of which terminate at Bombay, - viz. from Bombay, ''via'' Callian, to Jubbulpore, to meet the East Indian Railway Company's line from Allahabad, with branches to Mahim and Nagpore - 870 miles; and from Callian, ''via'' Poonah and Sholapore, to the opposite side of the river Kristna, to meet the line, ''via'' Bellary, from Madras - 366 miles - total, 1,236 miles. Capital 10,000,000''l''l. Rate of Interest Guaranteed - 5 per cent. on 8,000,000''l''. capital, and 4½ per cent. on 333,000''l''. debentures, the balance to be raised upon arrangements to be hereafter made."<ref>"Money Market and City Intelligence", ''The Times'', Wednesday, 15 June 1859, #23333, 7a.</ref><ref> [https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/228649/8330.pdf H.M. Government “Statute Law Repeals: Nineteenth Report : Draft Statute Law (Repeals) Bill; April 2012"; pages 128-130 paragraphs 3.57 - 3.64] Retrieved on 2 January 2016</ref>
[[Image:India-rail-1870.jpg|left|thumb|Map of GIPR in 1870]]
The principal economic benefit of the GIPR was the opening up of the interior to external trade. The two lines up the Western Ghats were fully open by 1865 in time for cotton from the Deccan to be exported from Bombay to Manchester thus filling the trade gap created by the American Civil War.
==Construction==
===The Western Ghats===
