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==Railway Achievements in India== *1849; '''[[Great Indian Peninsula Railway]]''' Appointed chief resident engineer.*1850 GIPR Chief EngineerJanuary; he left England for India. Having first decided on a scheme for the construction of a short line of thirty-three miles from [[Bombay ]] to Callian, he turned his attention to the extensions of the railway, and especially to the great work involved in carrying the line over the Western Ghats Ghâts Mountains, and designed two great inclines ascending mountains more than 2,000 feet high—the high — the [[Bhore Ghat Railway Construction|Bhore Ghat]] and the [[Thal Ghat Railway Construction|Thul Ghat]].* 1852 ; the surveys were begun, and four years were spent in surveying the [[Bhore Ghat Railway Construction|Bhore Ghat]]. On 16 April 1863 *1853; the first twenty miles of the line from [[Bombay ]] to Tanna were opened for public traffic, thus initiating the Indian railway system.*1856 ; the north-eastern line by the [[Thal Ghat Railway Construction|Thul Ghat]] was sanctioned by the Indian government, thus completing the GIPR Great Indian Peninsula system projected by Berkley, comprising a total length of 1,237 miles, and forming a grand trunk communication by the north-eastern line between [[Bombay]], [[Calcutta]], and the north-west, and by the south-eastern line between [[Bombay ]] and [[Madras]], including also an important line to [[Nagpore]].*In all these operations Berkley evinced the highest technical skill, firmness, and tact. He was a zealous advocate of the contract system, then regarded with some suspicion by the government, and he was strongly in favour of the employment of native agency. This gained him great popularity with the natives of Bombay.<br> His *1855 he became a magistrate; in 1857 a commissioner of the Bombay Municipal Board, and in 1858 a member of the Senate of Bombay University.*1856; with his health failing, Berkley came in 1856 returned to England, but revisited India to see his cherished work on the [[Bhore Ghat Railway Construction|Bhore Ghât Ghat]] fully developed. Compelled, however, by ill-health to leave India, he returned to England in April 1861, but his constitution was undermined by hard work in a tropical climate, and he died at Sydenham on 26 Aug. in 1862 at the comparatively early age of 42.*Berkley remained as Chief Engineer, up to 1862 and during his leadership GIP lines were extended to [[Jalgaon]] in Northeast and [[Sholapur]] in the Southeast direction.  ==Historical books online==*[http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100036301297.0x000001#ark:/81055/vdc_100036301307.0x000008 ''Paper on the Bhore Ghaut Incline of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. Read at the Bombay Mechanics' Institution in the Town Hall, Bombay, on Monday, December 21, 1857. With an appendix by A.A. West.''] by James J. Berkley (James John), published 1863. British Library ItemVIEWER. May be slow to load.