Even as the railways gathers pace for electrification across the country, Indian Railway’s oldest electric power substations at Kurla and Wadi Bunder that powered the first electric train and started it all, are rotting. In fact, the one at Kurla faces imminent demolition for a line expansion. In four years, Indian Railways will celebrate the centenary of electrification. 

India’s first electric train had run between Mumbai CSMT, (then called Bombay Victoria Terminus) and Kurla (then spelt Coorla) on the harbour line on February 3, 1925. The first Electric Multiple Unit local train service with 4-cars was flagged off by then Bombay Governor Sir Leslie Orme Wilson. The first motorman was Jahangir Framji Daruwala. Though the process of electrification of the railway was being considered since 1904, it was only in 1925 that the first electric railway train ran, delayed due to the First World War and subsequent developments.