This week Chris Tarrant is traveling on the Konkan railway which runs down the west coast of India connecting the port cities of Mumbai & Mangalore. Although the British Empire built 40, 000 miles of track across this vast sub-continent between, they stayed clear of this narrow, boggy strip of land as it was such a treacherous & difficult environment in which to build a railway. As a result Western India remained undeveloped until over 100 years later when a brave Indian engineer took on the daunting task. Known as The People's Railway it opened in January 1998, finally connecting the remote villages along the route to the outside world.