Indian Railways on Tuesday said that it is collaborating with technology partners for creating a pan-India virtual museum in the form of a digital web enabled platform.
"Indian Railways is collaborating with technology partners for creating a Pan-India virtual museum in a digital web enabled platform," the Ministry of Railways said in a statement.
"This virtual museum shall contain all railway heritage components like locomotives, coaches, building, bridges, documents, artifacts etc for world wide access through internet even on a mobile device."
The ministry said that the virtual museum will also feature ‘contributory or crowd sourcing mode' for soliciting contributions from large group of people, and especially from online communities.
"Such digital platform, already operational in some large museums in India, can also serve as ‘on-line' repository of knowledge on railway heritage, useful to students, tourists, research scholars and citizens," the statement said.1
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Indian Railways owns four UNESCO accorded world heritage sites -- Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (1999), Nilgiri Mountain Railway (2005), Kalka Shimla Railway (2008) and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai (2004). There are two more in waiting or in the tentative list namely Matheran Light Railway and Kangra Valley Railway. Similarly, iconic station and office buildings at Mumbai (Victoria Terminus, Bandra Suburban, Churchgate), Howrah, Garden Reach (BNR Office), Chennai Egmore, Royapuram, Lucknow, Madurai, etc, bear identities of their respective cities.
At present, Indian Railways maintains 34 museums, heritage parks and heritage galleries, spread all over India, for creating unique and rich experience to visitors about railway heritage in India. The National Rail Museum in New Delhi and Regional Rail Museums at Chennai, Mysore and Howrah are iconic tourist destinations in their region.2