A new project launched by Google to preserve, digitise Indian Railways' culture

Google and Ministry of Railways on Friday went on to launch a project that aims to preserve the cultural heritage of the Indian Railways. This is the first-of-its-scale heritage mapping and digitisation project.

"The Railways-Lifeline of a Nation" is a two-year digitisation project and is a comprehensive digital document viewable on Google's Arts and Culture website that was launched at the National Rail Museum.

The project is divided into four sections, which include "Journeys", "People", "Heritage" and "Engineering", each of which contains visual and textual narratives that can be accessed for free by rail enthusiasts.

The project comprises of photographs, text, documentaries, virtual tours, 360-degree videos, online exhibits, and maps, which pertain to the Indian Railways.

Minister of Railways, Piyush Goyal via video-conferencing went on to say that the project is an experience for the "1.3 billion people of India about what the 1.3 million railway employees are doing for serving them".

"From the Nilgiri mountains to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus Station, let the people of India relive their childhood... through the train journey to Madhira and through the Darjeeling toy train; let's show them the Kangra Valley, the Kalka-Shimla experience so that it could be enjoyed by someone in Coimbatore or Ooty," he said.

Other than the many railway lines, the project also documents stories of 32 railway employees, which includes engineers, trackmen, ticket checkers and shunters.