Template:Infobox station Template:Kharagpur Kharagpur Junction railway station is a railway station in Kharagpur subdivision of Paschim Medinipur district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is also the third longest railway station by platform length after Gorakhpur Junction railway station and Kollam Junction railway station.
History
Kharagpur Junction came up in 1898–99. On one side, Bengal Nagpur Railway's Kharagpur–Cuttack line was opened on New Year's Day in 1899. On the other hand, the opening of the bridge over the Rupnarayan River at Kolaghat, on 19 April 1900, connected Template:Stnlnk with Kharagpur. Kharagpur was also linked with Sini the same year. The line was ready in 1898–99. The Kharagpur–Midnapore branch line was opened to traffic in 1901.[1]
Infrastructure
After Template:Stnlnk, and Template:Stnlnk in Kerala, Kharagpur has the world's third-longest railway platform with a length of Template:Convert.[2][3][4] Remodelling of Gorakhpur railway station was completed and the new platform inaugurated on 6 October 2013. Till then Kharagpur held the distinction of having the longest platform in the world for many years.[5] Kharagpur also has the Asia's largest Railway Solid State Interlocking (SSI) system.[6]
Platform nos. 1 and 3, and 2 and 4 of Kharagpur Junction are contiguous. The 24-coach Coromandel Express stops at the start of platform no. 3 and its tail extends some distance into platform no. 1.[2] Aloo Khasa[7] is one of the famous dish found at the Kharagpur railway platform.
Background
It is the busiest junction station in South Eastern Railway Zone after Howrah. Hence, it is termed as Gateway to South Eastern Railway. It is one of the fifty highest railway reservation in India. It is a junction which connects Howrah to Mumbai, Chennai, Adra/Purulia and New Delhi via Tatanagar as well. It also connects Bhubaneshwar to New Delhi. Everyday approximately 275 trains pass through this station which includes freight traffic. In terms of passenger traffic it handles 176 trains on a daily basis. So, in a bid to decongest Kharagpur station and speed up locomotives, South Eastern Railway has decided to develop Hijli (close to IIT Kharagpur) as an alternative station for Kharagpur.[8] In future, most of the new trains coming from Balasore side and going towards Adra or Tatanagar will stop at Hijli and bypass Kharagpur. In order to increase passenger commute between Kharagpur and Template:Stnlnk, new EMU services have been introduced between these two stations.
The Howrah–Nagpur–Mumbai line is classified under Route A of Indian Railways which allows trains to run at maximum permissible speed of 160 km/hr. However, as a result of the automated block section between Howrah and Kharagpur, the speed is restricted to 120 km/hr. The Howrah–Kharagpur section has been identified as one of the high-density automatic block signaling routes on Indian Railways. Thus plans are to deploy Train Protection & Warning System (TPWS) on this section to mitigate the risk of signal passed at danger (SPAD) by train drivers leading to accidents.
Gallery
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The Howrah–Puri Shatabdi Express at Kharagpur -
An aerial view of the station -
An EMU at Kharagpur -
The station -
The station -
Entrance and ticket booking office at night -
Coromandel Express halted at Kharagpur Junction
References
- ↑ Indian Railway History timeline, Saxena, R. P.. Retrieved 2012-01-21.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Trivia. IRFCA. Retrieved 2012-01-21.
- ↑ Indian Railway Facts. iloveindia. Retrieved 2012-01-21.
- ↑ Gorakhpur gets world's largest railway platform(7 October 2013). Retrieved 7 October 2013.
- ↑ Uttar Pradesh gets world's longest railway platform. GulfNews(9 October 2013). Retrieved 9 October 2013.
- ↑ Asia's largest interlocking system at Kharagpur station. Times of India(15 Nov 2017). Retrieved 23 November 2017.
- ↑ AlOOKhasa – Kharagpur Railway Station Special
- ↑ Hijli to ease congestion at Kharagpur station. Times of India(31 Jul 2012).
External links
Template:Top 100 booking stations of Indian Railways Template:Railway stations in West Bengal Template:Kolkata Suburban Railway, South Eastern