New Delhi - 1982
The first railway
track in Asia was built over a stretch of 34 km from Bori Bandar to Thane. The 65 lb
wrought iron double-headed rails were imported from England by the Great
Indian Peninsula Railway Company.
On April 16, 1853, at 3:30 pm, three locomotives named Sultan, Sindh and Sahib hauled 14 railway carriages with 400 distinguished guests on board, for the first train ride in Asia. The trip was completed in 75 minutes, and included a short halt beyond Sion for water.
The Indian Railways employ nearly 15.84 lakh workers, making it the largest railway system in the world under a single management. It has a total route length of about 63,000 km, a fleet of 7,000 passenger trains, 4,000 goods trains, and around 7,085 railway stations. The Indian Railways carry more than 11 million passengers everyday. To put these numbers in perspective, the total number of daily air passengers in the USA (both domestic and international) is 1.45 million.
Athletes: 4,595 athletes from 33 countries
Debut Sports: Handball, Rowing, Golf, Women's Hockey and Equestrian Sports
Top 3 Countries: China (61G, 51S, 41B), Japan (57G, 52S, 44B), South Korea (28G, 28S, 37B)
- The New Delhi Asian Games was the first Asiad to be held under the aegis of the Olympic
Council of Asia (OCA). The Asian Games Federation, under whose jurisdiction the first
eight Asian Games had been held, dissolved to make way for the OCA.
- New Delhi (2 times) joined Bangkok (4 times) as the only cities to
host multiple editions of the Asian Games.
- This would be the first Asiad where Japan would not top the medal tally. China made its
presence felt in the sporting world by dethroning Japan as the top medallists in the New
Delhi Asiad. From now on, China would be the top medal getter in all succeeding Asiads.
- Host of the 10th Asiad in 1986, and the 24th Olympiad in 1988, South Korea participated in the
New Delhi Asiad with a 406-person delegation, including an observation team to study the
facilities, management and events.
- India's results in hockey were: beat Malaysia 5-1, beat Oman 10-0 and beat Bangladesh
12-0.
- Pakistan's results were: beat Japan 12-1, beat South Korea 10-0 and beat China 6-0.
- In the semi-finals, India beat Japan 7-2 while Pakistan beat Malaysia 2-0. In the
final, played before a full house at National Stadium, and in front of a national
television audience, Pakistan drubbed India 7-1 to register its biggest victory over India
en route to their 4th successive Asian Games hockey gold.
- The inaugural Asian Games women's hockey competition was won by India, with South Korea coming second. After the New Delhi Asiad, South Korea would win the next 4 Asian Games women's hockey gold medals, before China broke their streak in the 2002 Asian Games.
Final Standings:
1 - Pakistan, 2 - India, 3 - Malaysia, 4 - Japan, 5 - South Korea, 6 - China
Indian Team:
Players Zafar Iqbal (captain), Mir Ranjan Negi, Romeo James, Vineet Kumar, Manohar Topno, Rajinder Singh Sr., Gurmail Singh, Sommayya Maneypande, Rajinder Singh Jr., Charanjeet Kumar, Merwyn Fernandes, Jagdeep Singh, Mohammed Shaheed, Joaquim Carvalho, Syed Ali, Marcellus Gomes Officials Balbir Singh, Services (coach), Balbir Singh (manager)