History History of rail transport in india. The first railway proposals for India were made in Madras in 1832.The country's first train, Red Hill Railway (built by Arthur Cotton to transport granite for road-building), ran from Red hills to the Chintadripet bridge in Madras in 1837.In 1845, the Godavari Dam Construction Railway was built by Cotton at Dowleswaram in Rajahmundry , to supply stone for the construction of a dam over the Godavari River . In 1851, the Solani Aqueduct Railway was built by Proby Cautley in Roorkee to transport construction materials for an aqueduct over the Solani River. India's first passenger train, hauled by three steam locomotives ( Sahib , Sindh and Sultan ), ran for 34 kilometres (21 mi) with 400 people in 14 carriages on 1,676 mm ( 5 ft 6 in ) broad gauge track between Bori Bunder ( Mumbai ) and Thane on 16 April 1853. The Dapoorie viaduct, India's first railway bridge , was built over the Ulhas river when