1.
Rail transport
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Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, also known as tracks. It is also referred to as train transport. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles run on a flat surface. Tracks usually consist of rails, installed on ties and ballast, on which the rolling stock, usually fitted with metal wheels. Other variations are possible, such as slab track, where the rails are fastened to a concrete foundation resting on a prepared subsurface. Rolling stock in a transport system generally encounters lower frictional resistance than road vehicles, so passenger. The operation is carried out by a company, providing transport between train stations or freight customer facilities. Power is provided by locomotives which either draw electric power from a railway system or produce their own power. Most tracks are accompanied by a signalling system, Railways are a safe land transport system when compared to other forms of transport. The oldest, man-hauled railways date back to the 6th century BC, with Periander, one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Rail transport blossomed after the British development of the steam locomotive as a viable source of power in the 19th centuries. With steam engines, one could construct mainline railways, which were a key component of the Industrial Revolution, also, railways reduced the costs of shipping, and allowed for fewer lost goods, compared with water transport, which faced occasional sinking of ships. The change from canals to railways allowed for markets in which prices varied very little from city to city. In the 1880s, electrified trains were introduced, and also the first tramways, starting during the 1940s, the non-electrified railways in most countries had their steam locomotives replaced by diesel-electric locomotives, with the process being almost complete by 2000. During the 1960s, electrified high-speed railway systems were introduced in Japan, other forms of guided ground transport outside the traditional railway definitions, such as monorail or maglev, have been tried but have seen limited use. The history of the growth, decline and restoration to use of transport can be divided up into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of motive power used. The earliest evidence of a railway was a 6-kilometre Diolkos wagonway, trucks pushed by slaves ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element. The Diolkos operated for over 600 years, Railways began reappearing in Europe after the Dark Ages. The earliest known record of a railway in Europe from this period is a window in the Minster of Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany
2.
Kolkata
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Kolkata /koʊlˈkɑːtɑː/ is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. In 2011, the city had a population of 4.5 million, while the population of the city and its suburbs was 14.1 million, making it the third-most populous metropolitan area in India. Recent estimates of Kolkata Metropolitan Areas economy have ranged from $60 to $150 billion making it third most-productive metropolitan area in India, after Mumbai, in the late 17th century, the three villages that predated Calcutta were ruled by the Nawab of Bengal under Mughal suzerainty. After the Nawab granted the East India Company a trading licence in 1690, Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah occupied Calcutta in 1756, and the East India Company retook it the following year. In 1793 the East India company was enough to abolish Nizamat. Calcutta was the centre for the Indian independence movement, it remains a hotbed of contemporary state politics, following Indian independence in 1947, Kolkata, which was once the centre of modern Indian education, science, culture, and politics, suffered several decades of economic stagnation. Many people from Kolkata—among them several Nobel laureates—have contributed to the arts, the sciences, Kolkata culture features idiosyncrasies that include distinctively close-knit neighbourhoods and freestyle intellectual exchanges. Though home to major cricketing venues and franchises, Kolkata differs from other Indian cities by giving importance to association football, there are several explanations about the etymology of this name, The term Kolikata is thought to be a variation of Kalikkhetrô, meaning Field of Kali. Similarly, it can be a variation of Kalikshetra, alternatively, the name may have been derived from the Bengali term kilkila, or flat area. The name may have its origin in the words khal meaning canal, followed by kaṭa, according to another theory, the area specialised in the production of quicklime or koli chun and coir or kata, hence, it was called Kolikata. The discovery and archaeological study of Chandraketugarh,35 kilometres north of Kolkata, Kolkatas recorded history began in 1690 with the arrival of the English East India Company, which was consolidating its trade business in Bengal. The area occupied by the city encompassed three villages, Kalikata, Gobindapur, and Sutanuti. Kalikata was a village, Sutanuti was a riverside weavers village. They were part of an estate belonging to the Mughal emperor and these rights were transferred to the East India Company in 1698. In 1712, the British completed the construction of Fort William, facing frequent skirmishes with French forces, the British began to upgrade their fortifications in 1756. The Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, condemned the militarisation and his warning went unheeded, and the Nawab attacked, he captured Fort William which led to the killings of several East India company officials in the Black Hole of Calcutta. A force of Company soldiers and British troops led by Robert Clive recaptured the city the following year, declared a presidency city, Calcutta became the headquarters of the East India Company by 1772. In 1793, ruling power of the Nawabs were abolished and East India company took control of the city
3.
British Raj
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The British Raj was the rule by the British Crown in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947. The rule is also called Crown rule in India, or direct rule in India, the resulting political union was also called the Indian Empire and after 1876 issued passports under that name. It lasted until 1947, when the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two sovereign states, the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The British Raj extended over almost all present-day India, Pakistan and this area is very diverse, containing the Himalayan mountains, fertile floodplains, the Indo-Gangetic Plain, a long coastline, tropical dry forests, arid uplands, and the Thar desert. In addition, at times, it included Aden, Lower Burma, Upper Burma, British Somaliland. Burma was separated from India and directly administered by the British Crown from 1937 until its independence in 1948, among other countries in the region, Ceylon was ceded to Britain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens. Ceylon was part of Madras Presidency between 1793 and 1798, the kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan, having fought wars with the British, subsequently signed treaties with them and were recognised by the British as independent states. The Kingdom of Sikkim was established as a state after the Anglo-Sikkimese Treaty of 1861, however. The Maldive Islands were a British protectorate from 1887 to 1965, India during the British Raj was made up of two types of territory, British India and the Native States. In general, the term British India had been used to also to the regions under the rule of the British East India Company in India from 1600 to 1858. The term has also used to refer to the British in India. The terms Indian Empire and Empire of India were not used in legislation, the monarch was known as Empress or Emperor of India and the term was often used in Queen Victorias Queens Speeches and Prorogation Speeches. The passports issued by the British Indian government had the words Indian Empire on the cover, in addition, an order of knighthood, the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, was set up in 1878. At the turn of the 20th century, British India consisted of eight provinces that were administered either by a Governor or a Lieutenant-Governor, during the partition of Bengal the new provinces of Assam and East Bengal were created as a Lieutenant-Governorship. In 1911, East Bengal was reunited with Bengal, and the new provinces in the east became, Assam, Bengal, Bihar, there were 565 princely states when India and Pakistan became independent from Britain in August 1947. The princely states did not form a part of British India, the larger ones had treaties with Britain that specified which rights the princes had, in the smaller ones the princes had few rights. Within the princely states external affairs, defence and most communications were under British control, the British also exercised a general influence over the states internal politics, in part through the granting or withholding of recognition of individual rulers. Although there were nearly 600 princely states, the majority were very small
4.
Bengal
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Bengal is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in Asia, which is located in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Geographically, it is made up by the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta system, in 2011, the population of Bengal was estimated to be 250 million, making it the most densely populated region in South Asia. An estimated 160 million people live in Bangladesh, while 91.3 million people live in West Bengal, the predominant ethno-linguistic group are the Bengali people, who speak the Indo-Aryan Bengali language. Bengali Muslims are the majority in Bangladesh, Bengali Hindus are the majority in West Bengal. Dense woodlands, including rainforests, cover Bengals northern and eastern areas. In the littoral southwest are the Sunderbans, the worlds largest mangrove forest, in the coastal southeast lies Coxs Bazaar, the longest beach in the world at 125 km. The region has a climate, which the Bengali calendar divides into six seasons. Bengal has played a role in the history of Asia. In antiquity, its kingdoms were known as seafaring nations, at times an independent regional empire, or a bastion of larger empires, the historical region was a leading power of the Indian subcontinent and the Islamic East. Bengali culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature, music, art, architecture, sports, currency, commerce, politics and cuisine. The name of Bengal is derived from the ancient kingdom of Banga, theories on the origin of the term Banga point to the Proto-Dravidian Bong tribe that settled in the area circa 1000 BCE and the Austric word Bong. The term Bangaladesa is used to describe the region in 11th century South Indian records, the modern term Bangla is prominent from the 14th century, which saw the establishment of the Sultanate of Bengal, whose first ruler Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah was known as the Shah of Bangala. The Portuguese referred to the region as Bengala in the Age of Discovery, most of the Bengal region lies in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta, but there are highlands in its north, northeast and southeast. The Ganges Delta arises from the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra, the total area of Bengal is 232,752 km2—West Bengal is 88,752 km2 and Bangladesh 147,570 km2. The flat and fertile Bangladesh Plain dominates the geography of Bangladesh, the Chittagong Hill Tracts and Sylhet regions are home to most of the mountains in Bangladesh. Most parts of Bangladesh are within 10 metres above the sea level, because of this low elevation, much of this region is exceptionally vulnerable to seasonal flooding due to monsoons. The highest point in Bangladesh is in Mowdok range at 1,052 metres, a major part of the coastline comprises a marshy jungle, the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world and home to diverse flora and fauna, including the royal Bengal tiger. In 1997, this region was declared endangered, West Bengal is on the eastern bottleneck of India, stretching from the Himalayas in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south
5.
Assam
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Assam (English pronunciation, /əˈsæm/ listen is a state in northeastern India. Located south of the eastern Himalayas, Assam comprises the Brahmaputra Valley, Assam, along with Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, and Meghalaya, is one of the Seven Sister States. Geographically, Assam and these states are connected to the rest of India via a 22 kilometres strip of land in West Bengal called the Siliguri Corridor or Chickens Neck. Assam shares a border with Bhutan and Bangladesh, and its culture, people. Assam is known for Assam tea and Assam silk, the first oil well in Asia was drilled here. The state has conserved the one-horned Indian rhinoceros from near extinction, along with the water buffalo, pygmy hog, tiger. It provides one of the last wild habitats for the Asian elephant, the Assamese economy is aided by wildlife tourism, centred around Kaziranga National Park and Manas National Park which are World Heritage Sites. Sal tree forests are found in the state which, as a result of abundant rainfall, Assam receives more rainfall compared to most parts of India. This rain feeds the Brahmaputra River, whose tributaries and oxbow lakes provide the region with a hydro-geomorphic and aesthetic environment, the precise etymology of Assam came from Ahom Dynasty. In the classical period and up to the 12th century the region east of the Karatoya river, largely congruent to present-day Assam, was called Kamarupa, in medieval times the Mughals used Asham and Kamrup, and during British colonialism, the English used Assam. Though many authors have associated the name with the 13th century Shan invaders the precise origin of the name is not clear. It was suggested by some that the Sanskrit word Asama was the root, which has been rejected by Kakati, among possible origins are Tai and Bodo. Assam and adjoining regions have evidences of settlements from all the periods of the Stone ages. The hills at the height of 1, 500–2,000 feet were popular habitats probably due to availability of exposed dolerite basalt, useful for tool-making. According to a text, Kalika Purana, the earliest ruler of Assam was Mahiranga Danav of the Danava dynasty. The last of these rulers, also Naraka, was slain by Krishna, narakas son Bhagadatta became the king, who fought for the Kauravas in the battle of Kurukshetra with an army of kiratas, chinas and dwellers of the eastern coast. Samudraguptas 4th century Allahabad pillar inscription mentions Kamarupa and Davaka as frontier kingdoms of the Gupta Empire, ruled by three dynasties Varmanas, Mlechchha dynasty and Kamarupa-Palas, from their capitals in present-day Guwahati, Tezpur and North Gauhati respectively. All three dynasties claimed their descent from Narakasura, an immigrant from Aryavarta, in the reign of the Varman king, Bhaskar Varman, the Chinese traveller Xuanzang visited the region and recorded his travels
6.
Myanmar
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Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and also known as Burma, is a sovereign state in South East Asia bordered by Bangladesh, India, China, Laos and Thailand. About one third of Myanmars total perimeter of 5,876 km, forms an uninterrupted coastline of 1,930 km along the Bay of Bengal, the countrys 2014 census revealed a much lower population than expected, with 51 million people recorded. Myanmar is 676,578 square kilometres in size and its capital city is Naypyidaw and its largest city and former capital city is Yangon. Early civilizations in Myanmar included the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu city-states in Upper Burma, the Pagan Kingdom fell due to the Mongol invasions and several warring states emerged. In the 16th century, reunified by the Taungoo Dynasty, the country was for a period the largest empire in the history of Mainland Southeast Asia. The early 19th century Konbaung Dynasty ruled over an area included modern Myanmar and briefly controlled Manipur. The British invaded Myanmar after three Anglo-Burmese Wars in the 19th century and the became a British colony. Myanmar became an independent nation in 1948, initially as a nation and then, following a coup détat in 1962. For most of its independent years, the country has been engrossed in rampant ethnic strife, during this time, the United Nations and several other organisations have reported consistent and systematic human rights violations in the country. In 2011, the junta was officially dissolved following a 2010 general election. While former military leaders still wield enormous power in the country, there is, however, continuing criticism of the governments treatment of the Muslim Rohingya minority and its poor response to the religious clashes. In the landmark 2015 election, Aung San Suu Kyis party won a majority in both houses, Myanmar is a country rich in jade and gems, oil, natural gas and other mineral resources. In 2013, its GDP stood at US$56.7 billion, the income gap in Myanmar is among the widest in the world, as a large proportion of the economy is controlled by supporters of the former military government. As of 2016, according to the Human Development Index, Myanmar had a level of human development. The renaming remains a contested issue, many political and ethnic opposition groups and countries continue to use Burma because they do not recognise the legitimacy of the ruling military government or its authority to rename the country. The countrys official name is the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Countries that do not officially recognise that name use the long form Union of Burma instead, in English, the country is popularly known as either Burma or Myanmar /ˈmjɑːnˌmɑːr/. Both these names are derived from the name of the majority Burmese Bamar ethnic group, Myanmar is considered to be the literary form of the name of the group, while Burma is derived from Bamar, the colloquial form of the groups name
7.
Hooghly River
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The Hooghly River or the Bhāgirathi-Hooghly, called Ganga traditionally, is an approximately 260-kilometre-long distributary of the Ganges River in West Bengal, India. It splits from the Ganges as a canal in Murshidabad District at the Farakka Barrage, the town of Hugli-Chinsura, formerly Hooghly, is located on the river, in the Hooghly. The origins of the Hooghly name are uncertain, whether the city or the river was named first, the Farakka Barrage is a dam that diverts water from the Ganges into a canal near the town of Tildanga in Murshidabad district. This supplies the Hooghly with adequate water even in the dry season and it parallels the Ganges, past Dhulian, until just above Jahangirpur where the canal ends and the river takes its own course. Just south of Jahangirpur it leaves the Ganges area and flows south past Jiaganj Azimganj, Murshidabad, the river then flows south past Katwa, Navadwip and Kalna. At Kalna it originally formed the border between Nadia District and Hooghly District, and then further south between Hooghly District and North 24 Parganas District and it flows past Halisahar, Chinsurah, Serampore, and Kamarhati. Then just before entering the cities of Kolkata and Howrah. At Nurpur it enters an old channel of the Ganges and turns south to empty into the Bay of Bengal through the estuary of about 20 mi wide, two of its primary tributaries are Damodar and Rupnarayan. The tide runs rapidly on the Hooghly, and produces an example of the fluvial phenomenon known as a tidal bore. This consists of the head-wave of the tide, hemmed in where the estuary narrows suddenly into the river. It is felt as high up as Kolkata, and frequently destroys small boats, the difference from the lowest point of low-water in the dry season to the highest point of high-water in the rains is reported to be 20 ft 10 in. The greatest mean rise of tide, about 16 ft, takes place in March, April or May - with a declining range during the season to a mean of 10 ft. In its upper reaches the river is known as the Bhāgirathi. In 1974, the Farakka Barrage began diverting water into the Hooghly during the dry season so as to reduce the difficulties at Kolkatas port. Like the rest of the Ganges, the Bhāgirathi-Hooghly is considered sacred to Hindus, the Bhāgirathi-Hooghly river system is an essential lifeline for the people of West Bengal. It was through this river that the East India company sailed into Bengal and established their settlement, Calcutta. People from other such as the French, Dutch, Portuguese. The river provides a supply of water to the plain of West Bengal for irrigation
8.
East Indian Railway Company
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The company was established 1 June 1845 in London by a deed of settlement with a capital of £4,000,000, largely raised in London. The first board of directors formed in 1845 comprised thirteen members and they assessed that the maximum cost of a twin-track line would not exceed £15000 per mile if the land was available without charge. The East Indian Railway Company was then formed and raised money in London, by June, there was an impasse, in that the government still did not allow Turnbull and his engineers to mark a route on the ground. Specifications for works were advertised on 1 July and tenders received on 31 July for six contracts. Bamboo towers 80 feet tall were built above the palm trees at Serampore. On 29 January 1851 the East Indian Railway Company took possession of its first land, Turnbull and other British engineers began detailed surveys of the line. They chose the critical crossing point on the 5, 000-foot-wide Son River on 17 February, the best route to Raniganj was determined in May and June. The plans for Howrah station were submitted on 16 June, tenders for 11 contracts arrived on 31 October 1851. In December Turnbull continued his survey, he took levels and defined the line from Burdwan to Rajmahal, all permanent way, rolling stocks were transported from England in sailing ships to Calcutta via the Cape of Good Hope. In April 1854, it was estimated that over 100,000 tons of rails,27,000 tons of chairs, by 1859, there were 77 engines,228 coaches and 848 freight wagons. Although immense quantities of sal tree wood for sleepers were delivered from Nepal, yet more were needed. Thus fir sleepers from the Baltic were creosoted in England and shipped to India. The initial plans were for the bridges over the Ganges tributaries to be built of bricks. Brick-making skills were limited and often the available clay was found to be unsuitable. Transport by river of suitable clay was difficult, brick availability became a major problem, such that the decision was made to use vast quantities of ironwork – imported from England as India had no iron works at that time. Much ironwork was stolen during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, in 1853, The first railway line between Bombay to Thane was opened. It had 14 coaches and was driven by 3 engines The 541 miles of line from Howrah to Benares were opened to, more than 3,000 applications were received from the people wanting a ride in the first train. The first train ran to full capacity, the train left Howrah station at 8,30 a. m. and reached Hooghly in 91 minutes. It had three first-class and two second-class coaches and it also had three trucks for third-class passengers and a brakevan for the guard
9.
Assam Bengal Railway
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The Assam Bengal Railway was one of the pioneering railway companies in British India. Headquartered in Chittagong, it functioned from 1892 to 1942, Assam Bengal Railway was incorporated in 1892 to serve British-owned tea plantations in Assam. Later, with the effect from 1 February 1961, Eastern Bengal Railway was renamed as Pakistan Railway. with the emergence of Bangladesh, it became Bangladesh Railway with its headquarters at Pandu. On 14 April 1952, the 2857 km long Assam Railway and the Oudh and Tirhut Railway were amalgamated to form one of the six newly carved zones of the Indian Railways, the North Eastern Railway. On the same day, the reorganized Sealdah division of the erstwhile Bengal Assam Railway was amalgamated with the Eastern Railway, Assam Bengal Railway started construction of a railway track on the eastern side of Bengal in 1891. A150 kilometres track between Chittagong and Comilla was opened to traffic in 1895, the Comilla-Akhaura-Kalaura-Badarpur section was opened in 1896–1898 and finally extended to Lumding in 1903. The Assam Bengal Railway constructed a line to Guwahati, connecting the city to the eastern line in 1900. The line was extended to Tinsukia in 1902 and it was connected to Dibru-Sadiya Railway in 1903
10.
Partition of India
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The Partition of India was the division of British India in 1947 which accompanied the creation of two independent dominions, India and Pakistan. The Dominion of India is today the Republic of India and Dominion of Pakistan, the partition involved the division of two provinces, Bengal and the Punjab, based on district-wise Hindu or Muslim majorities. It also involved the division of the British Indian Army, the Royal Indian Navy, the Indian Civil Service, the railways, and the central treasury, between the two new dominions. The partition was set forth in the Indian Independence Act 1947 and resulted in the dissolution of the British Raj, the two self-governing countries of India and Pakistan legally came into existence at midnight on 14–15 August 1947. The violent nature of the created an atmosphere of hostility. The term partition of India does not cover the secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971, nor the earlier separations of Burma and Ceylon from the administration of British India. It does not cover the incorporation of the enclaves of French India into India during the period 1947–1954, nor the annexation of Goa, other contemporaneous political entities in the region in 1947, Sikkim, Bhutan, Nepal, and The Maldives were unaffected by the partition. The Hindu elite of Bengal, among many who owned land in East Bengal that was leased out to Muslim peasants. The pervasive protests against Curzons decision took the form predominantly of the Swadeshi campaign led by two-time Congress president, Surendranath Banerjee, sporadically—but flagrantly—the protesters also took to political violence that involved attacks on civilians. The violence, however, was not effective, as most planned attacks were either preempted by the British or failed, the unrest spread from Calcutta to the surrounding regions of Bengal when Calcuttas English-educated students returned home to their villages and towns. Since Calcutta was the capital, both the outrage and the slogan soon became nationally known. In conjunction, they demanded proportional legislative representation reflecting both their status as rulers and their record of cooperating with the British. This led, in December 1906, to the founding of the All-India Muslim League in Dacca, although Curzon, by now, had resigned his position over a dispute with his military chief Lord Kitchener and returned to England, the League was in favour of his partition plan. In the three decades since that census, Muslim leaders across northern India, had intermittently experienced public animosity from some of the new Hindu political and social groups. In 1905, when Tilak and Lajpat Rai attempted to rise to positions in the Congress. It was not lost on many Muslims, for example, that the rallying cry, World War I would prove to be a watershed in the imperial relationship between Britain and India. Indias international profile would thereby rise and would continue to rise during the 1920s, back in India, especially among the leaders of the Indian National Congress, it would lead to calls for greater self-government for Indians. Secretary of State for India, Montagu and Viceroy Lord Chelmsford presented a report in July 1918 after a long fact-finding trip through India the previous winter
11.
India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
12.
North Eastern Railway zone
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The North Eastern Railway is one of the 16 railway zones in India. It is headquartered at Gorakhpur and comprises Lucknow and Varanasi divisions as well as reorganized Izzatnagar division, the Cawnpore-Barabanki Railway was transferred to the North Eastern Railway on 27 February 1953. On 1 October 2002, Samastipur and Sonpur Divisions were transferred to East Central Railway, the present N. E. Railway, after re-organisation of Railway Zones in 2002, comprises three Divisions - Varanasi, Lucknow & Izatnagar. NER has 3,402.46 route km with 486 stations, NER primarily serves the areas of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand & western districts of Bihar. The administrative head of the zone is called General Manager, the current head of this zone is Mr. Rajiv Misra. North Eastern Railway Official Site North Eastern Railway
13.
Eastern Railway zone
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The Eastern Railway is one of the largest and High-Tech Zone in Indian Railways, it is among the 16 zones of the Indian Railways. Its headquarters is at Fairley Place, Kolkata and comprises four divisions, Howrah, Malda, Sealdah, each division is headed by a Divisional Railway Manager. The name of the division denotes the name of the city where the headquarters is located. Eastern Railway Consists Most no. of A1 and A Category Stations like Howrah, Sealdah, Asansol, Eastern Railways operates one of the oldest trains of India, Kalka Mail. 3 Popular Zones ECR, SER and NFR were part of ER before and it has three major workshops, Jamalpur, Liluah, and Kanchrapara. The East Indian Railway Company was incorporated in 1845 to connect East India with Delhi, the first train ran here between Howrah and Hooghly on 15 August 1854. The train left Howrah Station at 8,30 a. m. the management of the East Indian Railway was taken over by the British Indian government on 1 January 1925. Three more divisions, Dhanbad, Mughalsarai and Malda were formed later, till 30 September 2002 ER consisted seven divisions. On 1 October 2002 a new zone, the East Central Railway, headquarters at Hajipur, was carved out by separating the Eastern Railways Danapur, Dhanbad and Mughalsarai divisions from it
14.
Northeast Frontier Railway zone
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The Northeast Frontier Railway abbreviated as N. F. Railway, is one of the 17 railway zones in India, headquartered in Maligaon, Guwahati in the state of Assam, it is responsible for rail operations in the entire Northeast and parts of West Bengal and Bihar. The departmental setup at headquarters level and divisional setup in the field assists the General Manager in running the railways, in 1881, railway first came to Assam when Assam Railway and Trading Company set up metre gauge track. The 65-km-long metre gauge line from Dibrugarh to Margherita was constructed mainly for transportation of tea and this company later started the first passenger train in Assam by the name of Dibru Sadiya Railway. The North Eastern Railway was formed on 14 April 1952 by amalgamating two railway systems, the Assam Railway and Oudh and Tirhut Railway. Later, it was bifurcated into two zones on 15 January 1958, the North Eastern Railway and the Northeast Frontier Railway. to better serve the needs of the northeastern states. Railway service was established in Tripura in 1964, but it was limited to Dharmanagar and Kailasahar, agartala expects better and faster trains in the upcoming coming decade. The area of Northeast Frontier Railway operations is characterized by exceptional beauty and this difficult terrain limits the rail network expansion, and the only state with a decent rail network is Assam. The network is not broad gauge in many parts and the lines are antiquated with speeds at some sections being limited to a maximum of 30 km/h. Before the Saraighat Bridge was constructed, passengers had to get down on the Amingaon side of the Brahmaputra, after independence, Indias partition resulted in the isolation of the Northeast region. Consequently, the DHR was merged into Assam Railways, it was closed for the construction of the Assam–Bengal link line and one of its lines to Kishanganj was converted to metre gauge. DHRs other extension line to Kalimpong was washed away due to floods, on reopening, the DHR was merged with North Eastern Railway in 1952 and later into Northeast Frontier Railway in 1958. The steam locomotive is an icon of this Railway, tindharia workshop has kept 13 locomotives surviving, some of which are over 100 years old and the youngest is about 70 years old. Online Tickets N F Railway Northeast Frontier Railway Recruitment Dutta, Arup Kumar, indian Railways, the final frontier, genesis and growth of the North-East Frontier Railway
15.
Bangladesh Railway
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Bangladesh Railway, is the state-owned rail transport agency of Bangladesh. It operates and maintains the entire network of the country. BR is controlled by the Directorate General of Bangladesh Railway under the Ministry of Railways along with Bangladesh Railway Authority, Bangladesh Railway covers a length of 2,855 route kilometres and employs 34,168 people. BR operates international, inter-city and suburban rail systems on its multi-gauge network and it also owns coach production facilities. In 2014 it carried 65.00 million passengers and 2.52 million tonnes of freight making 8,135 million passenger-kilometer and 677 million tonne-kilometer. Railway operation in todays Bangladesh began on 15 November 1862 when 53.11 kilometres of 5 ft 6 in line were opened for traffic between Dorshona of Chuadanga District and Jogotee of Kushtia District. The next 14.98 kilometres 1,000 mm line was opened for traffic on 4 January 1885, in 1891, the construction of the Bengal Assam Railway was taken up with British Government assistance, it was later taken over by the Bengal Assam Railway Company. On 1 July 1895, two sections of metre gauge were opened, between Chittagong and Comilla, a length of 149.89 kilometres, and between Laksam Upazila and Chandpur District, a length of 50.89 kilometres. Railway Companies formed in England handled the construction and operation of sections in the middle. With the partition of India in 1947, the Bengal-Assam Railway was split up, the portion of the system located within the then East Pakistan,2,603.92 kilometres of track, came under the control of the central Government of Pakistan. From 1 February 1961, the Eastern Bengal Railway was renamed as the Pakistan Eastern Railway, as of 2005, the total length of railroad is 2,855 kilometres. Of that,660 km are broad gauge tracks,1,830 km are metre gauge tracks and 365 km are dual gauge tracks. The gauge problem is being tackled by adding third rails to the most important broad and metre gauge routes, a major road-rail bridge at Jamuna opened in 1998 to connect the previously detached east and west rail networks in dual gauge. On March 2008, the gauge reached Dhaka, the national capital. Funding is being sought to upgrade the network and transform Bangladesh Railway into a profitable business, BR exceeded its target revenue earnings in the fiscal year 2007–2008. After independence, the railway was first supervised by a Railway Board which was abolished in 1982, thereafter, the BR came under the jurisdiction of the Railway Division of the Ministry of Communications with the Secretary of the Division working as the Director General of BR. BR is divided into two zones, East & West, each under control of a manager who is accountable to the Director General of Bangladesh Railway. The two zones have their separate departments for operation, maintenance, and finances, each zone is divided into two divisions that contain departments for Personnel, Transportation, Commercial, Finance Mechanical, Way and Works Signaling & Telecommunication, Electrical, Medical, etc
16.
William Henry Jackson
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William Henry Jackson was an American painter, Civil War veteran, geological survey photographer and an explorer famous for his images of the American West. He was a nephew of Samuel Wilson, the progenitor of Americas national symbol Uncle Sam. Jackson was born in Keeseville, New York, on April 4,1843, Harriet, a talented water-colorist, was a graduate of the Troy Female Academy, later the Emma Willard School. Painting was his passion from a young age, by age 19, he had become a skillful, talented artist of American pre-Civil War visual arts. Orson Squire Fowler wrote that Jackson was excellent as a painter and he served in the American Civil War for nine months including one major battle, the Battle of Gettysburg. Jackson spent most of his tour on garrison duty and helped guard a train during the engagement. His regiment mustered out on July 14,1863, Jackson then returned to Rutland, where he worked as an artistic painter in post-Civil War American society. Having broken his engagement to Miss Carolina Eastman, he left Vermont for the American West, in 1867 along with his brother Edward Jackson he settled down in Omaha and entered the photography business. In 1869 Jackson won a commission from the Union Pacific to document the scenery along the railroad routes for promotional purposes. When his work was discovered by Ferdinand Hayden, who was organizing a geologic survey to explore the Yellowstone River region, he was asked to join the expedition. The following year, he got an invitation to join the 1870 U. S. government survey of the Yellowstone River. He also was a member of the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 which led to the creation of Yellowstone National Park, painter Thomas Moran was also part of the expedition, and the two artists worked closely together to document the Yellowstone region. These photographs played an important role in convincing Congress in 1872 to establish Yellowstone National Park and his involvement with Haydens survey established his reputation as one of the most accomplished explorers of the American continent. Jackson worked in multiple camera and plate sizes, under conditions that were incredibly difficult. His photography was based on the process invented in 1848. Jackson traveled with as many as three camera-types—a stereographic camera, a whole-plate or 8x10 plate-size camera, and one even larger and these cameras required fragile, heavy glass plates, which had to be coated, exposed, and developed onsite, before the wet-collodion emulsion dried. Without light metering equipment or sure emulsion speeds, exposure times required inspired guesswork, preparing, exposing, developing, fixing, washing then drying a single image could take the better part of an hour. Washing the plates in 160 °F hot spring water cut the time by more than half
17.
Lalgola and Gede branch lines
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The Lalgola and Gede branch lines connect Ranaghat with Lalgola and Gede in the Indian state of West Bengal. Both the branch lines run up to the India-Bangladesh border, while Lalgola is on the southern bank of the Padma, Gede has a through connection via Darshana. The main line of the Eastern Bengal Railway from Sealdah to Ranaghat, was opened in 1862 and extended to Kushtia, now in Bangladesh, the Calcutta terminus of the Railway was opened the same year in a tin-roofed shed at Sealdah. The Sealdah-Ranaghat-Gede Line was part of the Calcutta-Siliguri Main Line, after partition of India in 1947, the main line got truncated and what remained in West Bengal formed the Gede Branch Line. The Ranaghat-Lalgola Branch Line was opened in 1905, the Ranaghat – Krishnanagar City Jn. - Lalgola section has double line, surveys have been completed for third line from Krishnanagar City Jn. to Naihati and work has started between Naihati - Ranaghat. The important railway stations falling in Sealdah main line section including Lalgola section are Naihati jn, Kalyani, Ranaghat jn, Krishnanagar city jn, Beldanga, Berhampore Court, the bridge will connect this line to the Barharwa–Azimganj–Katwa loop. The Ranaghat-Krishnanagar City & Shantipur section was electrified in 1963-64, the 32.5 km long Ranaghat-Gede line was electrified in 1997-98. The 128 km long Krishnanagar-Lalgola stretch was electrified in 2004 for EMU services, the Nadia area had some narrow gauge lines. The earliest of these was opened in 1898 and it ran from Aistola Ghat on the bank of the Churni, some two miles from Ranaghat, to Krishnanagar via Shantipur. The line was constructed by Martin and Company and it was taken over by Eastern Bengal Railway in 1904, the second narrow gauge line was from Krishnanagar to Nabadwip Ghat. It was originally owned by McLeod and Company and transferred to Eastern Railway in 1966 and it was a 28 km line with 762 mm gauge lines. The Ranaghat-Shantipur section was converted to broad gauge earlier to allow EMU coaches from Sealdah to run up to Shantipur, the narrow gauge, therefore, became Shantipur-Krishnanagar-Nabadwip Ghat line. That too has closed in 2010 for conversion to broad gauge. The electrified broad-gauge service between Krishnanagar and Santipur was opened in 2012, here is a description of the narrow gauge ride, Both the station electric bell and the platform three handbell were rung in our honour. The tiny engine gave a peanut whistle – for once whistle and engine were well matched – and then surreptitiously changed from blowing off to blowing steam through its cylinders. The loose couplings of the coaches took up their slack. And the fields are brilliantly yellow-green with paddy
18.
Goalundo Ghat
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Goalundo Ghat is a small town and pourasabha in Goalandaghat Upazila, Rajbari District, Dhaka Division, Bangladesh, South Asia. There are two railway stops one at Goalundo Ghat and one at Goalundo Bazar, the town has an area of 4.86 km2 and a population of 22,000 inhabitants. The Eastern Bengal Railway opened the line from Kolkata to Goalundo, Goalundo was for many years a major transportation hub for travel in eastern parts of Bengal and Assam. Here is a brief on the importance of Goalundo Ghat in earlier years, “If one goes from Calcutta to Dacca the rail journey is broken at Goalundo, the night mail from Calcutta deposits one at Goalundo in the early hours of the morning. There are also services of steamers up the Padma to Digha Ghat, Patna in the dry season, and Buxar in the rains. From that it will be seen that Goalundo occupies a strong strategic position in the waterways of Bengal. Even after partition of India in 1947, the East Bengal Express ran up to 1964 and that was the last direct link with Kolkata. The Goalundo Ghat railway link has since been used only for travel in Bangladesh. Bus/road travel has since gained primary importance in Bangladesh, most people use buses for travel from Dhaka and other places to Benapole and then cross over the border for links to Kolkata. For a long time road transport has been using the Daulatdia-Paturia ferry crossing nearby, the ferry also carries long distance buses across the Padma
19.
Dhubri
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Dhubri is the headquarter of Dhubri district India. It is an old town on the bank of the Brahmaputra and Gadadhar rivers, in 1883, the town was first constituted as a Municipal Board under British regime. It is situated about 277.4 kilometres west from Dispur, Dhubri was an important commercial centre and had a busy river port particularly for jute. Dhubri is called the Land of Rivers as it is covered three sides by rivers, the word Dhuburi comes from a legendary lady named Netai-Dhubuni. The story is connected with Behula-Lakhindar, the word Dhubuni is considered a corruption of Dhuburi. According to Bodo-Kacharis, the word is of Bodo origin and derived from Dubra, the story of lady Netai-Dhubuni is widely accepted for the naming history of Dhubri and that is where the Gurdwara Sri Tegh Bahadur Sahib stands. Hence, it has importance for Sikh community. Until 1874, Dhubri was mostly a part of Bengal kings, in 1879, the district headquarters was shifted from Goalpara to Dhubri town. The district of Dhubri is again subdivided in three districts namely Dhubri, Goalpara and Kokrajhar, the town of Dhubri falls under the jurisdiction of the district of Dhubri whose headquarters is at town Dhubri. The present Dhubri District is one of the three Civil Sub-divisions of erst-while Goalpara district, established in 1876 during British regime, in 1879 the District headquarters was shifted from Goalpara to Dhubri. In the year 1983 Goalpara district was divided into four separate districts, covering an area of 2,838 km2. Including forests, riverines, hills etc. the district has become the most densely populated district in India with a density of 584 persons per km2, Dhubri is also famous for its Durga Puja and Dashera. The Dhubri Town was first constituted as a Municipality in 1883, the Dhubri Town is 290 km far from the State Capital at Dispur. As of 2011 India census, Dhubri had a population 63,388, males constitute 51% of the population and females 49%. Dhubri has an literacy rate of 74%, higher than the national average of 59. 5%, male literacy is 79% and. In Dhubri, 11% of the population is under 6 years of age, with close to 75% of its population Muslims, it is one of the minority concentrated districts of India. Most of these people are Desi people, in Dhubri town, Bengali constitute about 50% of the population. This was the region of Koch kingdom, the town is located between 89.5 degree east longitude and 26.1 degree north latitude
20.
Jubilee Bridge (India)
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The Jubilee Bridge is a former rail bridge over the Hooghly River between Naihati and Bandel in West Bengal, India. It provided an important connection between the Garifa and Hooghly Ghat stations, the Jubilee Bridge was opened on 16 February 1885 in the fiftieth, or jubilee, year of the reign of Queen Victoria. Construction began in 1882 and was completed in 1885, the Chief Engineer in charge of construction works was Lt Col Arthur John Barry, nephew of Sir John Wolfe-Barry, project engineer of the London Tower Bridge. The Bridge was designed by Sir Bradford Leslie, Chief Engineer in India and its steel was manufactured by Hawks Crawshay of Gateshead in England and James Goodwin of Motherwell in Scotland. He was a son of the American painter Charles Robert Leslie, the Jubilee Bridge is noteworthy in that it is a cantilever truss bridge, constructed entirely by riveting, without any nuts or bolts used in the construction. The old Jubilee Bridge was decommissioned from service on 17 April 2016, at the same time rail traffic was diverted through the new Jubilee bridge between Bandel and Naihati section of the Eastern Railway. It is situated beside the original Jubilee Bridge, the old Jubilee bridge served the people for 129 years, and several generations used the service to cross the River Hooghly. The old Jubilee Bridge has the distinction of being first permanent crossing over the Hooghly, the New Jubilee Bridge was inaugurated in 2016 after work started on around 2010
21.
Bandel
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Bandel, founded by Portuguese settlers, is an urban area in Chinsurah-Mogra block in Chinsurah subdivision of Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is under Chinsurah police station and is a part of Kolkata Metropolitan Area, Bandel is a major rail junction station of Eastern Railway, it is 40 km from Howrah station. Earlier, there was a Portuguese settlement at Bandel, the Church and the Monastery were built around 1660 by the Portuguese. Bandel word derived from Portuguese word mast of ship, Bandel Church is one of the oldest Christian churches in West Bengal and a nice Tourism attraction. It is dedicated to Nossa Senhora do Rosário, also known as Nossa Senhora da Boa Viagem, the keystone of an older church with the year 1599 on it adorns the riverside gate of the monastery attached to it. Bandel is located at 22°55′22″N 88°22′46″E and it has an elevation of 16 m, the main river that flows by Bandel is Ganges. The town is in Gangetic plain, climate Like the rest of the Ganges delta of West Bengal, the climate is tropical wet-and-dry in nature. A prolonged hot and humid weather is the characteristic of the climate of Bandel. The Monsoon stays from early June to mid-September, winter persists for almost three months, from mid-November to mid-February. The weather remains dry during the winter and humid during summer, Dunlop Factory, The famous Dunlop factory is situated at Sahaganj near Bandel. However, it has shut down owing to some issues in its administration. BTPS. It has since expanded and currently has a rated capacity of 530 MW. It is operated under the West Bengal Power Development Corporation and its the hub of agricultural import and export. At Bandel there are two stations, Hooghly railway station and Bandel Junction. Bandel Junction is an important railway station of Eastern Railway and is a rail station. The station is situated approximately 40 km from Howrah station on the Howrah-Bardhaman Main Line, the Bandel-Katwa meets the Howrah main line, here at Bandel Jn. Another branch line connects Bandel with Sealdah and Kolkata station via Naihati Junction, an EMU car-shed as well as a goods yard is situated in the neighbourhood of Bandel station. Like other parts of Kolkata suburban area auto rickshaws can easily be found on the roads, besides, there are buses, taxis, rickshaws
22.
Naihati
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Naihati is a town and an important railway junction station on the Indian Railways network, in the district of North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India. Naihati municipality is one of the oldest in the country and was established in 1869. It is the birthplace of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, the author of Indias national song Vande Mataram, Naihati is located at 22. 9°N88. 42°E /22.9,88.42. It has an elevation of 15 metres. Being situated in the tropics, the climate of Naihati is primarily hot and humid summers and cool, the rain bearing clouds from the Bay of Bengal brings torrential rain in the monsoon. In the summer temperature goes as high as 40 degree Celsius, as of 2011 India census, Naihati had a population of 221,762. Males constitute 50. 87% of the population and females 49. 13%, Naihati has an average literacy rate of 89. 79%, higher than the national average of 75. 06%, male literacy is 93. 16%, and female literacy is 86. 31%. In Naihati,7. 8% of the population is under 6 years of age and population density 18, 641/km2, with the partition of India there was a massive influx of refugees from East Pakistan into Kolkata and its peripheral areas. Naihati Railway Station is 38 km from Sealdah on the Sealdah-Ranaghat Line and 16 km from Barrackpore and it is part of the Kolkata Suburban Railway system. It is connected to Bandel on the Howrah-Bardhaman main line, the journey takes about 20 minutes. Naihati is also connected to Chuchura by ferry, the road transport is chiefly via the well known 85 route which operates between Barrackpore and Kanchrapara. There are also some other bus routes like Naihati to Habra, Naihati to Barasat, a new state and also Private Bus has started from Naihati to Digha, from Kanthal Para Railway Bridge. In 1857, the Eastern Bengal Railway was formed to lay the tracks along the east bank of the Hooghly River to Kushtia, the Jubilee Bridge linking Bandel and Naihati was opened on 21 February 1887, so that up country freight traffic could run through to Kolkata port. A new bridge is being built up beside the existing Jubilee bridge by Indian Railways, the bridge is already started functioning and it has two tracks, one for UP and another for down route trains. Due to the introduction of new route one can travel between Naihati and Bandel within 15 minutes. Noted historian and linguist Haraprasad Shastri, a descendant of Vidyadhar, was born here nearly a century. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Sahitya samrat one of the graetest Bengali novelist of all time, was born in Naihati. He was an author of novels, and authored Vande Mataram
23.
Dum Dum
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Dum Dum is a populated municipality under Barrakpore Commissionaire in north Kolkata. It comes under Barrackpore sub-division of the state of West Bengal and it is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority. Dum Dum region is about 10 km from the city centre, defined as the Esplanade, the nearby localities include Nager Bazar, Motijheel, Ghughu Danga, Private Road, Chatakal, Jawpur, Rajbari and Lal Bagan. Dum Dum is located at 22. 62°N88. 42°E /22.62,88.42 and it has an average elevation of 11 metres. The previous name of Dumdum was Domdoma, the 2011 India census reported that Dum Dum had a population of 117,637. The gender ratio was 927 females per 1000 males and 5.7 percent of the population was six years of age. Effective literacy was 93.51 percent, male literacy was 94.09 percent, the Kolkata Metro previously terminated at Dum Dum metro station on the boundary of Dum Dum, with Dum Dum Road leading to the city and areas beyond. Since 2013, the line has extended northwards to include the newly constructed Noapara station. However, the majority of trains still terminate at Dum Dum station, the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, or Kolkata Airport, is located on the periphery of Dum Dum and is therefore also called the Dum Dum Airport. Dum Dum railway station is on the Sealdah–Ranaghat line, the railway station and the metro station are in the same complex. The Circular Railway also terminates at the same station, the other stations in Dum Dum are located at Dum Dum Cantonment and Patipukur and Airport Gate No 1. Travel to airport by rail is inconvenient, as there are only a few trains at odd hours, NH34 starts from Dalkhola and ends at Dum Dum Road, one of the prime routes into the city of Dum Dum. Buses ply both arterial roads, the Jessore Road and the Dum Dum Road, on Dum Dum Road the bus routes are 30B,202, DN9, Howrah-Nagerbazar Mini, Dankuni-Nagerbazar WBSTC, Rajchandrapur-Salt Lake white bus, S-9. The minor roads on which buses ply are R. N, guha Road, Birati-Nimta road, Laketown connector, and Gorabazar-Cantonment Road. Autos are plentiful and can be used for short stretches, for example to travel from Dum Dum Station to Nagerbazar, Nagerbazar is the hub of autos where there are 4 routes originates viz, 1) Nagerbazar Dum Dum Junction 2) Nagerbazar Dum Dum Cantt 3) Nagerbazar Airport 1 no. The Dum Dum Station area does not have many taxis as the area is extremely crowded, the other popular means of travel over short distances is the rickshaw, newly battery operated rickshaws can also be seen. Additionally there are magic cars plying to different areas like Dakshineswar, Bali, Barasat, M. Sudhir Chandra Sur Degree Engineering College in Surer Math. There are many government sponsored schools, including, Dum Dum K K Hindu Academy Dum Dum Kishore Bharati High School Dum Dum Subhasnagar High School H. S, marys Orphanage & Day School St. Stephens School Tender Hearts WWA Cossipore English School. calcuttaairport. com/
24.
Dankuni
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Dankuni is a fast-growing industrial township near Kolkata, India. The town is part of the Hooghly District and under Srirampur Subdivision, West Bengal, the city under Kolkata metropolitan area or GreaterKolkata. Danakuni to Howrah city 15 km away and 16 km away from Kolkatas Sealdah stations in the city and is located, both NH19 and NH16 terminate at Dankuni. The Palsit-Dankuni section of NH19 is also referred to as Durgapur Expressway, other major arteries meeting at Dankuni are Belghoria Expressway connecting to NH12, SH 13/ Dankuni-Mogra Delhi Road and SH15. A Locomotive Factory for Railways is under construction, Dankuni railway station is located on the Howrah-Bardhaman chord, which was constructed in 1917. The Calcutta Chord from Dum Dum to Dankuni over the Willingdon Bridge was opened in 1932 and it is part of the Kolkata Suburban Railway system. Already, there is a presence of freight and wagon movements around Dankuni Railway Station. Dankuni, has a freight yard, where goods traffic is moved, sorted. In the future, Dankuni is believed to play a significant role because it will be the endpoint of the Ludhiana-Dankuni leg of the Dedicated Freight Corridor that is being built by Indian Railways, the 0–6 years population was 22,956. Effective literacy rate for the 7+ population was 85.69 per cent, a new township is being developed at Dankuni. According to the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority the project area is 4,846 acres of which 4,069 acres is township area and 777 acres is earmarked as industrial area. The project area covers 20 mouzas –5 full and 15 part, spread across four stations, namely Dankuni, Chanditala, Singur. Important railway stations in the area are Gobra, Janai Road and Begampur, apart from the important station at Dankuni itself. Important road corridors cutting across the area are Durgapur Expressway, Delhi Road, Naity Road. The township is being developed by DLF, once the ongoing work on the second Vivekananda Setu and the Belghoria Expressway through Nivedita Bridge is completed Dum Dum airport will be 20–25 minutes from Dankuni. Usha Martin School is new project in Dankuni
25.
Vivekananda Setu
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Vivekananda Setu is a bridge over the Hooghly River in West Bengal, India. It links the city of Howrah, at Bally, to its city of Kolkata. Completed in December 1932, it is a steel bridge and was built to provide road. The erection and deep well sinking of the bridge was done by famous Kutchi-Mestri contractor and his nameplate can still be seen on each girder of the bridge. The construction of bridge started in year 1926 and was completed in year 1932, the fabrication of the bridge was done at works of Braithwate & Company, Calcutta. The Bally Bridge was named Willingdon Bridge after Viceroy of India, Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon, the first train that ran across the bridge was named Jagmal Raja Howrah Express by the British, acknowledging the feat of Rai Bahadur Jagmal Raja. The bridge cost over ₹1 crore in those years, the Bridge was built with eight spans laid at distance of 300 ft each. The length of bridge is almost half mile with 10 km approach roads on both sides, the foundation laid with well-sinking 100 ft down the river beds, girding, erection of abutments, arching was all done by Jagmal Raja. The bridge also has bridges over the river at different points, namely the Howrah Bridge. This bridge has recently handled a traffic of 24,000 vehicles. Vivekananda Setu had become weak as a result of ageing, and with heavy traffic, there was need for a second bridge. Nivedita Setu was constructed parallel to it and around 50 metres downstream and it was opened to traffic in 2007. The Vivekananda Setu allows traffic movement upstream while the Nivedita Bridge helps downstream transport, List of longest bridges in the world List of longest bridges above water in India
26.
Chalan Beel
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Chalan Beel is a wetland in Bangladesh. It is an inland depression, marshy in character, with rich flora. Forty-seven rivers and other waterways flow into the Chalan Beel, as silt builds up in the beel, its size is being reduced. It consists of a series of beels connected to one another by various channels to form a water body during the rainy season. Chalan Beel is fast silting up, in the past it covered an area of about 1,085 km² but was reduced to 368 km² in 1909, of which only 85 km² remained underwater throughout the year. It has since shrunk to only 26 km², the most important factor dominating the river history in Bengal is the large proportion of silt carried by its rivers. It is the silt which has created the land and made it habitable by building it up through the centuries. It is silt which is fertilising the land, but the silt, silt deposited in the old river channel beds has forced them to change course, creating problems for abandoned areas while assisting in developing new areas. The main volume of water from the Ganges River began flowing through the Padma channel in the sixteenth century, silt from the Padma helped in building up the southern portion of north Bengal. This is the most plausible explanation for the existence of a depression around Chalan Beel, the Teesta was active in the region until it changed its course in 1787. This territory lies in between the land raised in the north by the Teesta system when it was active and that in the south by the Padma, however, there is another explanation for the creation of the depression. The Padma has been changing its course over the centuries, in Ven den Broucks map of Bengal, prepared in 1660, the main channel of the Padma is shown as flowing through Faridpur-Bakharganj, but there also is a suggestion of another, possibly earlier channel. This channel runs through Rampur Boalia in Rajshahi, Chalan Beel, Dhaleswari, at that time the Jamuna was virtually non-existent and the Brahmaputra used to flow through its old channel. An estimate taken in 1945 found about 47 rivers and other waterways flowed into the Chalan Beel, in addition to being a crossroads for the many waterways it also served as the origin for the many rivers flowing south or east that eventually meet with the Padma or Jamuna. In the early 1900s, Chalan Beel began to be hemmed in by the construction of the Eastern Bengal Railway main line on the west and the Santahar-Bogra branch line on the north. The natural pattern of the drainage channels in this area were disrupted by the obstruction caused by the railway construction since railways in these low lands had to be built on embankments. The banks of the beel are covered with stands of kash, babla, nol, dhol kolmi, simul. Seven species of frogs and one species of toad represent the amphibian fauna, Chalan Beel has a total of 34 species of reptiles include ten turtles and tortoises, nine lizards and various snake species
27.
Beel
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The term owes its origins to the word of the same pronunciation meaning pond in the Bengali and Assamese languages. Typically, beels are formed by inundation of low-lying lands during flooding, beels may also be caused by filling up of low-lying areas during rains, especially during the monsoon season. There are different causes for the formation of beels, a string of beels is indicative of their being the remains of a great river that deserted its channel, moving to a new one elsewhere. In north eastern Bangladesh there are water bodies called haors. A haor is a bowl shaped depression which is flooded every year during monsoon, throughout the rainy season a haor is such a vast stretch of turbulent water that it is thought of as a sea, within which the villages appear as islands. It remains under water for seven months of the year, during the dry season water drains out leaving small shallow lakes exposing rich soil extensively cultivated for rice. In greater Comilla, Faridpur, Dhaka and Pabna districts the beel is sometimes referred to as baor. Bangladesh has thousands of beels, with the best-known being Chalan Beel, Gopalganj-Khulna Beel, Meda Beel, Aila beel, Dekhar beel, Kuri beel, Erali beel, in the central part Bangladesh, important beels are Katla, Chatal, Nagarkanda, and Chanda. Most of the large beels have shrunk a great deal in recent decades, regionwise, in the northwest of Bangladesh some of the larger beels are Bara Beel in Pirganj, Tagrai Beel in Kurigram, Lunipukur in Rangpur, Bara Mirzapur Beel in Narail and Keshpathar in Bogra. The old river course of Atrai has beels, in the southern region of Bangladesh, important beels are Boyra, Dakatia, Bara, Kola, Patla, Chatal and Srirampur. In Assam, Deepor Beel is a permanent, freshwater lake, in a channel of the Brahmaputra river. It has great biological and environmental importance besides being the major storm water storage basin for the Guwahati city. The beel is endowed with rich floral and faunal diversity, in addition to huge congregation of residential water birds, the Deepor ecosystem harbours large number of migratory waterfowl each year. Deepor Beel has been designated as a Ramsar site in November 2002
28.
5 ft 6 in gauge railway
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5 ft 6 in/1,676 mm gauge is a broad track gauge commonly used in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Argentina and Chile, but is also used on BART, in the San Francisco Bay Area, United States. It is historically known as Broad gauge in South Asia or Provincial gauge and it is the widest gauge in regular use anywhere in the world. See 5 ft 6 in gauge in Scotland This gauge was first used in Scotland for two short, isolated lines, the Dundee and Arbroath Railway and the Arbroath and Forfar Railway. However, soon there were disagreements with Lord Dalhousie favoring a 6 ft gauge and Mr. Simms, the consulting engineer favoring five feet and six inches gauge. The debate was settled in favor of the five and half feet gauge, called the broad gauge in 1850s. In the late 20th century, India adopted Project Unigauge, Gauge conversion towards Indian gauge is underway, replacing several narrow gauges and metre gauges. Pakistan uses primarily broad gauge, but also has a mix of metre gauge, the Bangladesh Railways uses a mix of broad gauge and metre gauge. The broad gauge network is located to the west of the Jamuna River. The Jamuna Bridge is a mixed use bridge that contains a gauge connection across the river linking both networks. Sri Lanka previously had a mix of broad gauge and other narrow gauges, however, all services currently operate on broad gauge as the other lines have either been closed or converted. In the 1850s it was first used in Canada, and was used in other British colonies. It was known as the Provincial gauge in Canada, the earliest railways in Canada, including the 1836 Champlain and St. Lawrence,1839 Albion Colliery tramway and 1847 Montreal and Lachine Railway were all built to standard gauge. The Grand Trunk Railway which operated in several Canadian provinces and American states used it, the Grand Trunk Railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal, Quebec, but corporate headquarters were in London, England. The St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad which operated in Quebec, Vermont, New Hampshire, there is a longstanding rumour that the Provincial gauge was selected specifically to create a break-of-gauge with US railways, the War of 1812 still being a fresh memory. However, there is supporting evidence for this, and this story appears to be traced to a single claim from the late 1800s. The Bay Area Rapid Transit system is the operating railroad in the United State to use Indian gauge. The original engineers for the system had background in aerospace and intended to make a system for other municipalities to emulate. The use of Indian gauge rails was one of many design elements included in its design
29.
Indian Railways Fan Club
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The Indian Railways Fan Club is the internets largest website devoted to the Indian Railways. The IRFCA is a discussion group connecting many fans particularly interested in railways in India, forum traffic is moderate to heavy, and runs around hundred and fifty to two hundred posts a day most of the time. Topics on IRFCA cover current passenger services, routes, timetables, technical details of operations, motive power, rolling stock. It also has a section on historical aspects of trains in India. IRFCA started with a group of rail fans discussing Indian trains in the Usenet newsgroup, the list was operational on 1989-08-29. The first incarnation of the list had just 9 members exchanging e-mail directly, the list was then hosted on various US university listservers for many years, mainly because many of the members in those days were graduate students in US universities. The list was transferred to ONElist in 1999. ONElist later merged with eGroups, which was acquired by Yahoo. During the first ten years or so the membership remained small, at 50 to 100 members, with the spread of the Internet in recent years, especially in India, membership has been continuously rising. As of April 2008 the list has more than 5,900 members from several countries, the two biggest groups on the basis of members locations are from India and the US. The next leading contingent is probably from the UK, in 2010, the group moved on from the mailing list format to an online forum, which allowed better searchability and grouping of topics. It also allowed a faster and easier mode of interaction than a mailing list, as in early 2013, more than 6000 users were registered on the forum. The IRFCA server was not a single web site. The Indian Railways FAQ was maintained on a GeoCities web site, several other IRFCA members had their own web sites scattered across the net. Later the domain irfca. org and all IRFCA-related material was consolidated on it, the lists original name was Indian Railways Fan Club of America which was appropriate when the list began, as all the members were in the USA. When its membership grew and went global, the name became less accurate. Members of the group, also once a year for the IRFCA Convention. This year marked the Silver Jubilee of IRFCA, Convention X #AaoHYB was held in the city of Hyderabad
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Bangladesh
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Bangladesh, officially the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It shares land borders with India and Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and China are located near Bangladesh but do not share a border with it. The countrys maritime territory in the Bay of Bengal is roughly equal to the size of its land area, Bangladesh is the worlds eighth most populous country. Dhaka is its capital and largest city, followed by Chittagong which has the countrys largest port, Bangladesh forms the largest and eastern part of the Bengal region. Bangladeshis include people of different ethnic groups and religions, Bengalis, who speak the official Bengali, make up 98% of the population. The politically dominant Bengali Muslims make the nation the worlds third largest Muslim-majority country, most of Bangladesh is covered by the Bengal delta, the largest delta on Earth. The country has 700 rivers and 8,046 km of inland waterways, highlands with evergreen forests are found in the northeastern and southeastern regions of the country. Bangladesh has many islands and a coral reef and it is home to the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world. The countrys biodiversity includes a vast array of plant and wildlife, including critically endangered Bengal tigers, the Greeks and Romans identified the region as Gangaridai, a powerful kingdom of the historical subcontinent, in the 3rd century BCE. Archaeological research has unearthed several ancient cities in Bangladesh, which had trade links for millennia. The Bengal Sultanate and Mughal Bengal transformed the region into a cosmopolitan Islamic imperial power between the 14th and 18th centuries, the region was home to many principalities which had inland naval prowess. It was also a center of the worldwide muslin and silk trade. As part of British India, the region was influenced by the Bengali renaissance, the Partition of British India made East Bengal a part of the Dominion of Pakistan, and was renamed as East Pakistan. The region witnessed the Bengali Language Movement in 1952 and the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, after independence, a parliamentary republic was established. A presidential government was in place between 1975 and 1990, followed by a return to parliamentary democracy, the country has also been affected by poverty, natural disasters, hunger, dominant party systems and military coups. Bangladesh is a power and a major developing nation. Listed as one of the Next Eleven, it has the 46th largest economy and it is one of the largest textile exporters in the world. Its major trading partners are the European Union, the United States, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, with its strategically vital location between Southern, Eastern and Southeast Asia, Bangladesh is an important promoter of regional connectivity and cooperation
