Elevation 29 m (95 ft) Operated by South Eastern Railway Owner Indian Railways | Owned by Indian Railways Phone 096351 28693 Platforms in use 12 | |
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Location Kharagpur - 721301, West Bengal
India Line(s) Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line
Howrah-Chennai main line
Howrah-Kharagpur line
Asansol–Tatanagar–Kharagpur line
Kharagpur-Puri line Structure type Standard (on ground station) Address Kharagpur, West Bengal 721301 Similar Santragachi Junction railway st, Howrah Junction railway st, Bhubaneswar railway station, Bhadrak railway station, Khurda Road Junction r | ||
Kharagpur is a railway station in Kharagpur subdivision of Paschim Medinipur district in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Contents
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 Howrah 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.
Platform length
After Gorakhpur, and Kollam junction in Kerala, Kharagpur has the world's third longest railway platform with a length of 1,072.5 metres (3,519 ft). Remodelling of Gorakhpur railway station was completed and the new platform inaugurated on 6 October 2013. Till then Kharagpur boasted of the longest platform in the world for many years.
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 in to platform no. 1.
Longest
The longest railway platforms in the world are:
- Gorakhpur railway station, Uttar Pradesh, India:1,366.33 m (4,483 ft)
- Kollam Junction, Kerala, India:1,180.5 m (3,873 ft)
- Kharagpur, West Bengal, India: 1,072.5 m (3,519 ft)
- State Street subway station, Chicago, Illinois, United States: 1,067 m (3,501 ft) (longest in United States)
- Bilaspur railway station, Chhattisgarh, India: 802 m (2,631 ft)
- Cheriton Shuttle Terminal, Folkestone, United Kingdom: 791 m (2,595 ft) (longest in Europe)
- Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, India: 770 m (2,526 ft)
- East Perth railway station, Perth, Western Australia: 770 m (2,526 ft) (longest in Australia)
- Kalgoorlie railway station, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia: 760 m (2,493 ft)
- Sonepur railway station, Sonepur, Bihar, India: 738 m (2,421 ft)
- Flinders Street Station, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: 708 m (2,323 ft)
- Port Pirie, South Australia: 701 m (2,300 ft)
- East Tsim Sha Tsui Station, Kowloon, Hong Kong: longest platform with platform screen doors 300 m (984 ft)
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. 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 Hijli, 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 Section routes on Indian Railways. Thus plans are to deploy TPWS (Train Protection and Warning System) on this section to mitigate the risk of Signal passed at danger (SPAD) by train drivers leading to accidents.
It has also been identified as one of the Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) - on the East-West : Howrah-Mumbai via Kharagpur-Bilaspur-Nagpur, and on the East-Coast : Kharagpur-Vijayawada via Khurda Road-Duvvada. These routes would be operational well before 2020. This would create adequate capacity to meet the freight demand and also elevate the quality of service to global standards.
Due to increasing number of trains on Howrah - Kharagpur section, construction of a third line from Panskura to Kharagpur has been initiated. Upon completion of this project, the traffic on this section may be eased to some extent (Howrah - Panskura section has already 3 lines).
Due to passenger demand, new Ladies Special EMU service has been introduced between Howrah - Kharagpur. Plans are also to introduce more new suburban trains between Howrah-Narayangarh (towards Balasore) and Howrah-Ghatsila (towards Tatanagar).
Kharagpur Junction has total 10 platforms.
Platforms - 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 serve Mail/Express trains. Platforms - 1A,2A,3A,4A serve EMU/MEMU/Passenger trains.
2new platforms are under construction - Platform 7 & 8. Once functional the number of platforms at Kharagpur will be 12.