Modi on the tracks

Historian Makarand Mehta has credited Indians, many of them Gujaratis, for playing a stellar role in the development of East Africa’s economy by starting businesses there. When the British colonists started to lay the tracks for the Uganda-Kenya railways in 1896, a project which radically altered the scenario of the region, many Indians were involved. The first engine driver who piloted a train on the newly-laid track was Merwanji Modi, father of noted filmmaker Sohrab Modi, reveals a report in The Times of India (TOI) of September 26, 2013.
Merwanji was an employee of the Imperial British East Africa Company, which founded the railway line. He is also credited with being the first one to drive a train on the Alvar-Ajmer line in 1900, mentions TOI.