Prayas: 50 facts of Indian Railway by Somdeb Karmarkar

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Wednesday Work-out session – 17th December, 2014

Presented By – Somdeb Karmakar

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Indian Railway is an Indian state-owned enterprise, owned andoperated by the Government of India through the Ministry ofRailways. It has presently seventeen zones.


New Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi Express is the fastest train in India.The all air-conditioned superfast train clocks a maximumspeed of 150km/h on the Faridabad-Agra section


Ooty Nilgiri Passenger which runs at a speed of 10kmph, 15times slower than fastest running train. Since this train runs inhilly region there are speed limits to comply.


Vivek Express from Dibrugarh to Kanyakumari travels adistance of 4273 km, making it the longest run in terms of totaltime and distance in Indian Railways.


Scheduled services between Nagpur and Ajni stations situatedjust 3km from each other – primarily meant for crew to travelfrom Nagpur station to the workshop at Ajni.


Trivandrum – H. Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express travels the 528km stretch between Vadodara and Kota non-stop.


Venkatanarasimharajuvaripeta on the Arakkonam-Reniguntasection near Chennai.


Ib, near Jharsuguda in Odisha and Od, near Anand in Gujarat.


The record for maximum number of stops by an Express/Mail train is held by Howrah – Amritsar Express 115 halts


Guwahati-Trivandrum Express is said to be the most unreliable long-distance train in the country. The charted journey time is 65 hours and 5 minutes, but the average delay on a trip is about 10-12 hours.


Srirampur and Belapur are two different stations inAhmednagar district of Maharashtra which are both at thesame location on the railway route but on opposite sides ofthe track.


Electric locomotive WAG-9 used for hauling heavy freight rakesis the most powerful locomotive in Indian Railways’ fleet. The6,350 horsepower beast is homed at Gomoh, Ajni, Lallaguda,Tughlakabad and Bhilai.


Northernmost railway station is Baramulla in Jammu andKashmir. Westernmost is Naliya near Bhuj in Gujarat.Southernmost railway station is Kanyakumari, while the laststation on the east of India is Ledo on branch line fromTinsukia.


Mathura junction with 7 routes- Broad Gauge (BG) line to Agra Cantt, BGline to Bharatpur, BG line to Alwar, BG line to Delhi, Metre Gauge (MG) lineto Achnera, MG line to Vrindavan and MG line to Hathras, Kasganj. Sixroute junction – Bhatinda. Five route junctions – Lucknow, Guntakal, Katni,Varanasi, Kanpur Central, Villupuram, Dabhoi, and Nagpur.


Seven parallel tracks between Bandra Terminus and Andheri –10km. Siliguri station on NFR holds the distinction of havingthree different gauges present.


Lucknow, with 64 trains per day.


Indian Railways owns the longest railway platform in the worldat Kharagpur (West Bengal) with a length of 2,733 ft (1072.5m) in length


Indian Railways still has the oldest preserved locomotive in working order,the Fairy Queen which was made way back in 1855. It is the oldestfunctioning steam engine in the world, which finds a place in theGuinness Book of World Records and got Heritage Award at theInternational Tourist Bureau, Berlin in March 2000.


The first railroad was constructed by two Indians (JamsetjeeJeejeebhoy and Jaganath Shunkerseth) and not the British


Indian Railways is the world’s ninth largest commercial orutility employer, by number of employees, with over 1.4million employees. It is also the India’s largest employer


Though it is commonly believed, India doesn’t have the largest railway networkin the World. India comes fourth with approx. 64,000 km of railroad after US,Russia, and China. If the tracks were to be laid out from one point to anotheraround the equator, it would circle it one-and-a-half times.


The manufacture of steam locomotives in the country wasstopped in 1972


The total distance covered by the 14,300 trains daily on theIndian Railways daily equals three & half times the distance tomoon.


Toilets on trains were first introduced in 1891 in 1st class andin 1907 in lower classes


Air Cooling was first introduced in 1st class coaches in 1874 inGreat Indian Peninsular Railway


The country’s longest tunnel is Pir Panjal Railway Tunnel 11.215 km thatwas completed in December 2012 in Jammu and Kashmir. The tunnel is yetto become functional railway route. Karbude on Konkan Railways, which is6.5 km in length previously held the title for the longest tunnel in India.


First Underground Railway that was opened for public use wasCalcutta Metro.


First Reservation through the computer System commenced inNew Delhi in the year 1986.


First Electric coach ran on the 3rd February 1925 betweenBombay VT and Kurla stations


Indians were not allowed to board the Palace on Wheelsluxury train for quite a while when it was launched onRepublic Day of 1982


In the Bihar train disaster on June 6, 1981, a passenger train carrying 800 ormore passengers between Mansi and Saharsa, derailed and plunged intothe river Bagmati while it was crossing a bridge


The Indian Railways (IR) carries over 25 million passengers daily which isperhaps more than the entire population of Australia, New Zealand andTasmania put together. Annually Indian Railways ferries 7.2 billionpassengers (nearly 6x India’s current population).


Indian Railways runs as many as 19,000 trains every day. Some12,000 trains are for passengers and 7,000 for freight.


The whole network has 7,083 stations


Indian Railways has had an operation span of nearly 170 years.


Even after recent hike, fares on long distance journeys on the IR can beconsidered cheapest in the world. For instance, 1,500 km journey on Delhi-Kolkata route by Kalka Mail costs around Rs 250. A similar journey wouldcost 10x more on any budget train in Europe which boasts of strong railtransport.


Mumbai’s local trains are amongst the world’s few to have 15coaches. Shanghai’s local trains come close with 12 coaches.


CST in Mumbai caters to 33 million passengers annually and isthe only terminus in the world to be listed as a monument ofglobal heritage by UNESCO.


Ever since its origin in 1853, the rail service in India neverturned back making it one of the oldest track in the world.


Indian Railways collected Rs.581 Crore in fines+charges onticketless travel in during the financial year 2011-12.


The National Rail Museum in Delhi set up in 1977 is a one of the unique museumsin Asia. Sprawled over an area of 11 acres the museum has collections likeantique steam engines, locomotives, models, carriages, photographs amongother things. There are live exhibits as well as working and non-working models.The added attraction is the toy train which runs across the museum.


Vembanad Rail Bridge 4.62 km in length in the state of Kerala connectsconnecting Edappally and Vallarpadam in Kochi. It is the longest rail bridge inIndia and it is dedicated solely for freight.


India’s first sea bridge, the Pamban Bridge is a cantilever bridge onthe Palk Strait. It connects Rameswaram on Pamban Island (TamilNadu) to mainland India.


Saraighat Bridge (1,492 m) is the first rail-cum-road bridgeconstructed over the Brahmaputra River in Guwahati, Assam. It wasopened to passenger traffic in June 1963.


Dapoorie Viaduct (1854) on the Mumbai-Thane route is the firstrailway bridge in India


Ghum railway station of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is thehighest railway station in India. It is situated at an altitude of 2,258metres (7,407 ft)


The world’s highest rail bridge being constructed over Chenab river in Jammu & Kashmir’sReasi district (Chenab Bridge) will be ready by December, 2015. Coming up at Kauri, it willbe 359 meters (1,180 feet) above the riverbed (five times the height of Qutub Minar and35 metres taller than Eiffel Tower)


Parsik Tunnel (1865) is India’s first rail tunnel.


Delhi station entered Guinness book of world records for having theworld’s largest route relay interlocking system.


Indian Railways have approximately 10.65 lakh acre of land. About 90 per cent ofthis land is under Railway’s operational and allied usages. The total vacant land,at present is about 1.13 lakh acre.


The Mumbai–Pune Deccan Queen has the oldest running dining carin Indian Railways.


I would really like to thank the management for providing me withthe opportunity. I offer my gratitude to my colleagues too for theirsupport!!

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Prayas: 50 facts of Indian Railway by Somdeb Karmarkar