1.
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
2.
West Bengal
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West Bengal is an Indian state, located in East India on the Bay of Bengal. It is Indias fourth-most populous state, with over 91 million inhabitants and it has a total area of 34,267 sq mi, making it similar in size to Serbia. A part of the ethno-linguistic Bengal region, it borders Bangladesh in the east and Nepal and it also has borders five Indian states, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, Sikkim and Assam. The state capital is Kolkata, the seventh-largest city in India, the geography of West Bengal includes the Darjeeling Himalayan hill region in its extreme north, the Ganges delta, the Rarh region and the coastal Sundarbans. The main ethnic group are the Bengali people, with Bengali Hindus forming the demographic majority, Ancient Bengal was the site of several major janapadas, including Vanga, Radha, Pundra and Suhma. In the 2nd century BC, the region was conquered by the emperor Ashoka, in the 4th century AD, it was absorbed into the Gupta Empire. From the 13th century onward, the region was ruled by sultans, powerful Hindu states and Baro-Bhuyan landlords. The British East India Company cemented their hold on the following the Battle of Plassey in 1757. Between 1977 and 2011, the state was administered by the worlds longest elected Communist government, a major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to Indias net domestic product. It is noted for its activities and the presence of cultural and educational institutions. The states cultural heritage, besides varied folk traditions, ranges from stalwarts in literature including Nobel-laureate Rabindranath Tagore to scores of musicians, film-makers and artists. West Bengal is also distinct from most other Indian states in its appreciation and practice of playing football besides cricket. The origin of the name Bengal is unknown, one theory suggests that the word derives from Bang, a Dravidian tribe that settled the region around 1000 BC. The word might have derived from the ancient kingdom of Vanga. Although some early Sanskrit literature mentions the name, the early history is obscure. At the end of British Rule over the Indian subcontinent, the Bengal region was partitioned in 1947 along religious lines into east and west, the east came to be known as East Bengal and the west came to known as West Bengal, which continued as an Indian state. In 2011, the Government of West Bengal proposed a change in the name of the state to Poschimbongo. This is the name of the state, literally meaning western Bengal in the native Bengali language
3.
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
4.
Rapid transit
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Rapid transit, also known as heavy rail, metro, subway, tube, or underground, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. The stations typically have high platforms, without steps inside the trains and they are typically integrated with other public transport and often operated by the same public transport authorities. However, some transit systems have at-grade intersections between a rapid transit line and a road or between two rapid transit lines. It is unchallenged in its ability to transport large numbers of people quickly over short distances with little use of land, variations of rapid transit include people movers, small-scale light metro, and the commuter rail hybrid S-Bahn. The worlds first rapid-transit system was the partially underground Metropolitan Railway which opened as a railway in 1863. In 1868, New York opened the elevated West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway, china has the largest number of rapid transit systems in the world. The worlds longest single-operator rapid transit system by length is the Shanghai Metro. The worlds largest single rapid transit service provider by both length of revenue track (665 miles and number of stations is the New York City Subway. The busiest rapid transit systems in the world by annual ridership are the Tokyo subway system, the Seoul Metropolitan Subway, the Moscow Metro, the Beijing Subway, Metro is the most common term for underground rapid transit systems used by non-native English speakers. One of these terms may apply to a system, even if a large part of the network runs at ground level. In Scotland, however, the Glasgow Subway underground rapid transit system is known as the Subway, in the US, underground mass transit systems are primarily known as subways, whereas the term metro is a shortened reference to a metropolitan area. In that vein, Chicagos commuter rail system, serving the area, is called Metra. Exceptions in naming rapid transit systems are Washington DCs subway system the Washington Metro, Los Angeles Metro Rail, and the Miami Metrorail, the opening of Londons steam-hauled Metropolitan Railway in 1863 marked the beginning of rapid transit. Initial experiences with steam engines, despite ventilation, were unpleasant, experiments with pneumatic railways failed in their extended adoption by cities. Electric traction was more efficient, faster and cleaner than steam, in 1890 the City & South London Railway was the first electric-traction rapid transit railway, which was also fully underground. Both railways were merged into London Underground. The 1893 Liverpool Overhead Railway was designed to use electric traction from the outset, budapest in Hungary and Glasgow, Chicago and New York all converted or purpose-designed and built electric rail services. Advancements in technology have allowed new automated services, hybrid solutions have also evolved, such as tram-train and premetro, which incorporate some of the features of rapid transit systems
5.
Headway
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Headway is a measurement of the distance or time between vehicles in a transit system. The minimum headway is the shortest such distance or time achievable by a system without a reduction in the speed of vehicles, a shorter headway signifies a more frequent service. Headway is a key input in calculating the overall capacity of any transit system. A system that requires large headways has more empty space than passenger capacity, in this case, the capacity has to be improved through the use of larger vehicles. On the other end of the scale, a system with short headways, like cars on a freeway, the term is most often applied to rail transport, where low headways are often needed to move large numbers of people in mass transit railways. A lower headway requires more infrastructure, making lower headways expensive to achieve, modern large cities require passenger rail systems with tremendous capacity, and low headways allow passenger demand to be met in all but the busiest cities. Newer signalling systems and moving block controls have significantly reduced headways in modern systems compared to the lines only a few years ago. In principle, automated personal rapid transit systems and automobile platoons could reduce headways to as little as fractions of a second, there are a number of different ways to measure and express the same concept, the distance between vehicles. The differences are due to historical development in different countries or fields. The term developed from use, where the distance between the trains was very great compared to the length of the train itself. In the case of a system, train lengths are uniformly short. Where vehicle size varies and may be longer than their stopping distances or spacing, as freight trains and highway applications. The units of measure also vary, the most common terminology is to use the time of passing from one vehicle to the next, which closely mirrors the way the headways were measured in the past. A timer is started when one passes a point, and then measures time until the next one passes. This same measure can also be expressed in terms of vehicles-per-hour, distance measurements are somewhat common in non-train applications, like vehicles on a road, but time measurements are common here as well. Train movements in most rail systems are controlled by railway signalling systems. In many railways drivers are given instructions on speeds, and routes through the rail network, trains can only accelerate and decelerate relatively slowly, so stopping from anything but low speeds requires several hundred metres or even more. The track distance required to stop is often longer than the range of the drivers vision
6.
Track gauge
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In rail transport, track gauge is the spacing of the rails on a railway track and is measured between the inner faces of the load-bearing rails. All vehicles on a network must have running gear that is compatible with the track gauge, as the dominant parameter determining interoperability, it is still frequently used as a descriptor of a route or network. There is a distinction between the gauge and actual gauge at some locality, due to divergence of track components from the nominal. Railway engineers use a device, like a caliper, to measure the actual gauge, the nominal track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the rails. In current practice, it is specified at a distance below the rail head as the inner faces of the rail head are not necessarily vertical. In some cases in the earliest days of railways, the company saw itself as an infrastructure provider only. Colloquially the wagons might be referred to as four-foot gauge wagons, say and this nominal value does not equate to the flange spacing, as some freedom is allowed for. An infrastructure manager might specify new or replacement track components at a variation from the nominal gauge for pragmatic reasons. Track is defined in old Imperial units or in universally accepted metric units or SI units, Imperial units were established in United Kingdom by The Weights and Measures Act of 1824. In addition, there are constraints, such as the load-carrying capacity of axles. Narrow gauge railways usually cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels. Narrow gauge is often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in civil engineering work can be substantial. Broader gauge railways are generally expensive to build and require wider curves. There is no single perfect gauge, because different environments and economic considerations come into play, a narrow gauge is superior if ones main considerations are economy and tight curvature. For direct, unimpeded routes with high traffic, a broad gauge may be preferable, the Standard, Russian, and 46 gauges are designed to strike a reasonable balance between these factors. In addition to the general trade-off, another important factor is standardization, once a standard has been chosen, and equipment, infrastructure, and training calibrated to that standard, conversion becomes difficult and expensive. This also makes it easier to adopt an existing standard than to invent a new one and this is true of many technologies, including railroad gauges. The reduced cost, greater efficiency, and greater economic opportunity offered by the use of a common standard explains why a number of gauges predominate worldwide
7.
Broad-gauge railway
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Broad-gauge railways use a track gauge greater than the 1,435 mm standard gauge. In Britain the Great Western Railway, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, pioneered broad gauge in 1838 with a gauge of 7 ft 1⁄4 in, some harbours also used railways of this gauge for construction and maintenance. These included Portland Harbour and Holyhead Breakwater, which used a locomotive for working sidings, as it was not connected to the national network, this broad-gauge operation continued until the locomotive wore out in 1913. The gauge initially proposed by Brunel was 7 ft exactly but this was increased by 1⁄4 in to accommodate clearance problems identified during early testing. It became apparent that standardization on a gauge throughout a rail transport system was advantageous. Rolling stock did not need to match the gauge exactly, a difference of a few millimetres could be coped with, the value of interoperability was initially not obvious to the industry. The standardization movement was gradual, over time the value of a proprietary gauge diminished, being replaced by the idea of charging money for equipment used on other railway lines. Ireland, using the criteria, was allocated a different standard gauge. Broad-gauge lines in Britain were gradually converted to dual gauge or standard gauge from 1864, Ireland and some states in Australia and Brazil have a gauge of 5 ft 3 in, but Luas, the Dublin light rail system, is built to standard gauge. Russia and the other former Soviet Republics use a 1,520 mm gauge while Finland continues to use the 5 ft gauge inherited from Imperial Russia, in 1839 the Netherlands started its railway system with two broad-gauge railways. But the neighbouring countries Prussia and Belgium already used standard gauge, in 1855, NRS regauged its line and shortly afterwards connected to the Prussian railways. There are replicas of one broad-gauge 2-2-2 locomotive and three carriages in the Dutch Railway Museum in Utrecht and these replicas were built for the 100th anniversary of the Dutch Railways in 1938–39. Portugal and the Spanish Renfe system use a gauge of 1,668 mm called Ancho Ibérico in Spanish or Bitola Ibérica in Portuguese, in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, a gauge of 5 ft 6 in is widespread. This is also used by the Bay Area Rapid Transit system of the San Francisco Bay Area. In Toronto, Canada the gauge for TTC subways and streetcars was chosen in 1861, years after the establishment of gauge in Britain. In 1861, the province was supplying subsidies only to broad gauge railways. The use of a non-standard gauge precludes interoperability of rolling stock on railway networks. On the 5 ft 3 in and 5 ft 6 in gauges, the extra width allowed bigger inside cylinders and greater power, in the event, the most powerful engines on standard gauge in North America and Scandinavia far exceeded the power of any broad-gauge locomotive
8.
Standard gauge
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The standard gauge is a widely used railway track gauge. Approximately 55% of the lines in the world are this gauge, all high-speed rail lines, except those in Russia, Uzbekistan, and Finland, are standard gauge. The distance between the edges of the rails is defined to be 1435 mm except in the United States. It is also called the UIC gauge or UIC track gauge, as railways developed and expanded, one of the key issues was the track gauge to be used. The result was the adoption throughout a large part of the world of a gauge of 1435 mm. In North East England, some lines in colliery areas were 4 ft 8 in. All these lines had been widened to standard gauge by 1846, parts of the United States, mainly in the Northeast, adopted the same gauge, because some early trains were purchased from Britain. However, until well into the half of the 19th century, Britain. The American gauges converged as the advantages of equipment interchange became increasingly apparent, notably, all the 5 ft broad gauge track in the South was converted to standard gauge over the course of two days beginning on 31 May 1886. See Track gauge in the United States, snopes categorized this legend as false, but commented that. It is perhaps more fairly labelled as True, but for trivial, the historical tendency to place the wheels of horse-drawn vehicles approximately 5 feet apart probably derives from the width needed to fit a carthorse in between the shafts. Others were 4 ft 4 in or 4 ft 7 1⁄2 in, the English railway pioneer George Stephenson spent much of his early engineering career working for the coal mines of County Durham. He favoured 4 ft 8 in for wagonways in Northumberland and Durham, the Hetton and Springwell wagonways also used this gauge. Stephensons Stockton and Darlington railway was primarily to transport coal from mines near Shildon to the port at Stockton-on-Tees. The initial gauge of 4 ft 8 in was set to accommodate the existing gauge of hundreds of horse-drawn chaldron wagons that were already in use on the wagonways in the mines. The railway used this gauge for 15 years before a change was made to 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in gauge, George Stephenson used the 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in gauge for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, authorised in 1826 and opened 30 September 1830. The success of this led to Stephenson and his son Robert being employed to engineer several other larger railway projects. Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway, authorised 1824 and opened 1825, used 4 ft 6 in, Dundee and Newtyle Railway, authorised 1829 and opened 1831, used 4 ft 6 1⁄2 in
9.
Railway electrification system
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A railway electrification system supplies electric power to railway trains and trams without an on-board prime mover or local fuel supply. Electrification has many advantages but requires significant capital expenditure, selection of an electrification system is based on economics of energy supply, maintenance, and capital cost compared to the revenue obtained for freight and passenger traffic. Different systems are used for urban and intercity areas, some electric locomotives can switch to different supply voltages to allow flexibility in operation, Electric railways use electric locomotives to haul passengers or freight in separate cars or electric multiple units, passenger cars with their own motors. Electricity is typically generated in large and relatively efficient generating stations, transmitted to the railway network, some electric railways have their own dedicated generating stations and transmission lines but most purchase power from an electric utility. The railway usually provides its own lines, switches and transformers. Power is supplied to moving trains with a continuous conductor running along the track usually takes one of two forms. The first is a line or catenary wire suspended from poles or towers along the track or from structure or tunnel ceilings. Locomotives or multiple units pick up power from the wire with pantographs on their roofs that press a conductive strip against it with a spring or air pressure. Examples are described later in this article, the second is a third rail mounted at track level and contacted by a sliding pickup shoe. Both overhead wire and third-rail systems usually use the rails as the return conductor. In comparison to the alternative, the diesel engine, electric railways offer substantially better energy efficiency, lower emissions. Electric locomotives are usually quieter, more powerful, and more responsive and they have no local emissions, an important advantage in tunnels and urban areas. Different regions may use different supply voltages and frequencies, complicating through service, the limited clearances available under catenaries may preclude efficient double-stack container service. Possible lethal electric current due to risk of contact with high-voltage contact wires, overhead wires are safer than third rails, but they are often considered unsightly. These are independent of the system used, so that. The permissible range of voltages allowed for the voltages is as stated in standards BS EN50163. These take into account the number of trains drawing current and their distance from the substation, railways must operate at variable speeds. Until the mid 1980s this was only practical with the brush-type DC motor, since such conversion was not well developed in the late 19th century and early 20th century, most early electrified railways used DC and many still do, particularly rapid transit and trams
10.
Third rail
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A third rail is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway track. It is used typically in a transit or rapid transit system. Third rail systems are supplied from direct current electricity. The third-rail system of electrification is unrelated to the third used in dual gauge railways. Third-rail systems are a means of providing electric power to trains. On most systems, the rail is placed on the sleeper ends outside the running rails. The conductor rail is supported on ceramic insulators or insulated brackets, the trains have metal contact blocks called shoes which make contact with the conductor rail. The traction current is returned to the station through the running rails. The conductor rail is made of high conductivity steel. The conductor rails have to be interrupted at level crossings, crossovers, tapered rails are provided at the ends of each section, to allow a smooth engagement of the trains contact shoes. Because third rail systems present electric shock hazards close to the ground, a very high current must therefore be used to transfer adequate power, resulting in high resistive losses, and requiring relatively closely spaced feed points. The electrified rail threatens electrocution of anyone wandering or falling onto the tracks. This can be avoided by using platform screen doors, or the risk can be reduced by placing the rail on the side of the track away from the platform. There is also a risk of pedestrians walking onto the tracks at level crossings, the Paris Metro has graphic warning signs pointing out the danger of electrocution from urinating on third rails, precautions which Chicago did not have. The end ramps of conductor rails present a practical limitation on speed due to the impact of the shoe. The world speed record for a rail train is 174 km/h attained on 11 April 1988 by a British Class 442 EMU. In the event of a collision with an object, the beveled end ramps of bottom running systems can facilitate the hazard of having third rail penetrate the interior of a passenger car. This is believed to have contributed to the death of five passengers in the Valhalla train crash of 2015, third rail systems using top contact are prone to accumulations of snow, or ice formed from refrozen snow, and this can interrupt operations
11.
Kavi Subhash metro station
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The Kavi Subhash Metro Station, formerly New Garia Metro Station, is the southern terminal station of the North-South corridor of Kolkata Metro in Kolkata, India. It is named after poet Subhash Mukhopadhyay and this station was opened to public on the auspicious day of Mahalaya in 2010. This metro station is at level and located adjacent to New Garia Railway station on the Sealdah-Sonarpur section. The station will become the southernmost terminal of the Jai Hind - Kavi Subhash corridor of the Kolkata Metro. The easiest & shortest kolkata metro rail stretch is kavi Subhash to Satyajit Ray film institute, even this simple Metro extension is purposely undone since 2011. New garia is a backward, mosquito infested place, a deadly dengue prone area. No progress in the New Garia locality is foreseen without immediate Metro rail connectivity with E. M bypass Easiest &shortest kolkata metro rail stretch is 5km, even this simple extension is purposely undone since2011. New garia is a backward, mosquito infested place, a deadly dengue prone area. No progress in the locality is foreseen without immediate Metro rail connectivity. Island platforms in kavi subash metro station are not built for Line 6, the deadline is already missed in March 2016. Not even the 1st phase of New Garia - Airport link is commissioned yet, New Garia is an under developed mosquito infested area
12.
Indian Railways
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Indian Railways is a state-owned railway company, responsible for rail transport in India. It is owned and operated by the Government of India through the Ministry of Railways. It is fourth largest railway network in the world comprising 119,630 kilometres of track and 92,081 km of running track over a route of 68,525 km with 7,216 stations at the end of 2015-16. In 2015-16, IR carried 8.107 billion passengers annually or more than 22 million passengers a day and 1.101 billion tons of freight annually, Railways were first introduced to India in the year 1853 from Bombay to Thane. In 1951 the systems were nationalised as one unit, the Indian Railways, IR operates both long distance and suburban rail systems on a multi-gauge network of broad, metre and narrow gauges. It also owns locomotive and coach production facilities at places in India, with assigned codes identifying their gauge, kind of power. Its operations cover twenty six states and three union territories across India, and also has connectivity to Bangladesh and Pakistan. Indian Railways is the eighth biggest employer and had 1.331 million employees at the end of 2015-16. In 2015–2016 Indian Railways had revenues of ₹1.683 trillion which consists of ₹1.069 trillion freight earnings and it had operating ratio of 90. 5% in 2015-16. As on the end of 2015-16, IRs rolling stock comprises over 251,256 Freight Wagons,70,241 Passenger Coaches and 11,122 Locomotives, Indian Railways run on average 13,313 passenger trains daily in 2015-16. Mail or Express trains, most common type, run at speed of 50.9 km/hr on Broad Gauge and 34.2 km/hr on Meter Gauge. The trains have a 5 digit numbering system, as of at the end of 2015-16, of the total 68,525 km route length,28,327 km was electrified and 28,371 km was Double or Multiple line route. Since 1960, almost all electrified sections on IR use 25,000 volts AC traction through overhead catenary delivery, the history of railway transport in India began in the mid-nineteenth century. The core of the pressure for building railways In India came from London, in 1848, there was not a single kilometre of railway line in India. The countrys first railway, built by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, opened in 1853, the East Indian Railway 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 Great Southern India Railway Co. was founded in Britain in 1853, Construction of track in Madras Presidency began in 1859 and the 80-mile link from Trichinopoly to Negapatam was opened in 1861. The Carnatic Railway founded in 1864, opened a Madras-Arakkonam-Kancheepuram line in 1865, the Great Southern India Railway Company was subsequently merged with the Carnatic Railway Company in 1874 to form the South Indian Railway Company. A British engineer, Robert Maitland Brereton, was responsible for the expansion of the railways from 1857 onwards, the Allahabad-Jabalpur branch line of the East Indian Railway had been opened in June 1867
13.
Ministry of Railways (India)
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The Ministry of Railways is a ministry in the Government of India, responsible for the countrys rail transport. The ministry operates the state-owned Indian Railways, an organisation operates as a monopoly in rail transport and is headed by the Chairman of Railway Board. The ministry is headed by the Minister of Railways, a minister who presents the rail budget every year in parliament. There is one Union Minister of Railways, and one Minister of State for Railways, rajen Gohain is the current Minister of State for Railways. The Railway Board, which is the body of the Indian Railways reports to the Minister of Railways. The Railway Board comprises one Chairman, five members of the Railway Board and it also includes a Director-General and a Director-General. A number of directorates report to the Railway Board, the Ministry of Railways is housed inside Rail Bhavan in New Delhi. The East India Railway Committee, chaired by Sir William Acworth, hence known as the Acworth Committee. The Railway Board was expanded to have a Financial Commissioner, a member in charge of ways, works, stores and projects, and a member in charge of administration, staff, and traffic. Accordingly, from 1 April 1929, the responsibility for the compilation of accounts for the Railways was taken over by the Financial Commissioner, in 1924, the railway budget formed about 70% of the countrys budget. So separating it out allowed better focus on each budgets priorities, the Railway Budget now is less than 15% of Indias national budget. The presentation of the Railway budget is of interest to the people, because the introduction of new services, fare changes. Each year, the budget is made available for viewing. Official website of the Ministry of Railways IRFCA link of railways ministers
14.
Chief Minister of West Bengal
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The Chief Minister of West Bengal is the chief executive of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. As per the Constitution of India, the governor is a de jure head. Following elections to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, the governor usually invites the party with a majority of seats to form the government. The governor appoints the chief minister, whose council of ministers are responsible to the assembly. Given that he has the confidence of the assembly, the chief ministers term is for five years and is subject to no term limits, West Bengal origins lie in Bengal, a province of the British Raj that included present-day Bangladesh. Between 1937 and 1947 it was governed by a popularly elected ministry. In 1947, Bengal province was partitioned into the Indian state of West Bengal, K. Fazlul Huq, Khawaja Nazimuddin and H. S. Suhrawardy—became Pakistani citizens, the latter two went on to become Prime Ministers of Pakistan in the 1950s. Since 1947, there have been eight Chief Ministers of West Bengal, the first was Prafulla Chandra Ghosh of the Indian National Congress, who was succeeded by his party-mates Bidhan Chandra Roy and Prafulla Chandra Sen. A decade of instability followed, marred by fractious coalition governments, the instability ended with 1977 election victory of the Communist Party of India. Headed by Jyoti Basu, the CPM-led Left Front government was in office for over 23 years, Left rule in West Bengal continued for another 10 years under Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, before its defeat in the 2011 election by the Trinamool Congress. Appointed on 20 May 2011, Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee is the current incumbent, List of Governors of West Bengal List of rulers of Bengal Footnotes References
15.
Bidhan Chandra Roy
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Bidhan Chandra Roy, MRCP, FRCS was the second Chief Minister of West Bengal in India. He remained in his post for 14 years as an Indian National Congress candidate and he was a highly respected physician and a renowned freedom fighter. Bidhan Roy is often considered the architect of West Bengal, who founded five eminent cities, Durgapur, Kalyani, Bidhannagar, Ashokenagar. He was an alumnus of the Medical College Calcutta of the University of Calcutta and he is one of the few people in history who was able to complete his F. R. C. S. and M. R. C. P. In India, the National Doctors Day is celebrated on the date of his birth 1 July every year, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy constituted a trust for his properties at Patna for social service and made eminent nationalist Ganga Sharan Singh the trustee. He was awarded Bharat Ratna on 4 February 1961, Indias highest civilian honour and he was also a member of the Brahmo Samaj. Bidhan Chandra Roy was born on 1 July 1882 at B. M. Das Road Patna, Bihar as son of Prakash Chandra Roy, Bidhan passed Matric examination from Patna Collegiate School in 1897. Bidhan did his I. A. from Presidency College, Calcutta and he applied for admission to the Bengal Engineering College, and the Calcutta Medical College. He was accepted to both institutions but opted to go to medical school, Bidhan left for Calcutta in June 1901. While at medical school Bidhan came upon an inscription which read, Bidhan was deeply impressed by these words and they became a source of inspiration for him throughout his life. Bidhans term in school was fought with hardships. His father retired as a Deputy Collector after the first year, Bidhan funded for himself by getting a scholarship and living frugally, saving on books by borrowing notes and relying on books in the library. The partition of Bengal was announced while Bidhan was in college, opposition to the partition was being organised by nationalist leaders like Lala Lajpat Rai, Prajit Sengupta, Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal. Bidhan resisted the immense pull of the movement and he controlled his emotions and concentrated on his studies realising that he could better serve his nation by qualifying in his profession first. Immediately after graduation, B. C. Roy joined the Provincial Health Service and he exhibited immense dedication and hard work. He was prepared to prescribe medicine to patients and even serve as a nurse when necessary, in his free time he practised privately, charging a fee of Rs.8 only. Bidhan sailed for England with only Rs.1,200 in February 1909 intending to himself at St Bartholomews Hospital to further his education. The Dean, reluctant to accept a student from Asia, rejected Bidhans application, Dr. Roy did not lose heart
16.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
17.
Delhi
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Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory of Delhi or NCT, is a city and a union territory of India. It is bordered by Haryana on three sides and by Uttar Pradesh to the east, the NCT covers an area of 1,484 square kilometres. According to 2011 census, Delhis city population was about 11 million, Delhis urban area is now considered to extend beyond the NCT boundary to include an estimated population of over 26 million people making it the worlds second largest urban area. As of 2016 recent estimates of the economy of its urban area have ranked Delhi either the top or second most productive metro area of India. Delhi is the second wealthiest city after Mumbai in India, with a wealth of $450 billion. Delhi has been inhabited since the 6th century BC. Through most of its history, Delhi has served as a capital of various kingdoms and it has been captured, ransacked and rebuilt several times, particularly during the medieval period, and modern Delhi is a cluster of a number of cities spread across the metropolitan region. New Delhi is jointly administered by the government of India and the local government of Delhi. Delhi is also the centre of the National Capital Region, which is a unique interstate regional planning area created by the National Capital Region Planning Board Act of 1985, Delhi ranks among the cities with the worst air pollution in the world. There are a number of myths and legends associated with the origin of the name Delhi, one of them is derived from Dhillu or Dilu, a king who built a city at this location in 50 BC and named it after himself. The coins in circulation in the region under the Tomaras were called dehliwal, according to the Bhavishya Purana, King Prithiviraja of Indraprastha built a new fort in the modern-day Purana Qila area for the convenience of all four castes in his kingdom. He ordered the construction of a gateway to the fort and later named the fort dehali, another theory suggests that the citys original name was Dhillika. The people of Delhi are referred to as Delhiites or Dilliwalas, the city is referenced in various idioms of the Northern Indo-Aryan languages. Dilli dilwalon ka shehr or Dilli Dilwalon ki meaning Delhi belongs to the large-hearted/daring, aas-paas barse, Dilli pani tarse, literally meaning it pours all around, while Delhi lies parched. An allusion to the sometimes semi-arid climate of Delhi, it refers to situations of deprivation when one is surrounded by plenty. The area around Delhi was probably inhabited before the second millennium BC, the city is believed to be the site of Indraprastha, the legendary capital of the Pandavas in the Indian epic Mahabharata. According to Mahabharata, this land was initially a huge mass of forests called Khandavaprastha which was burnt down to build the city of Indraprastha, the earliest architectural relics date back to the Maurya period, in 1966, an inscription of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka was discovered near Srinivaspuri. Remains of eight cities have been discovered in Delhi
18.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
19.
East Germany
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East Germany, formally the German Democratic Republic, was an Eastern Bloc state during the Cold War period. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin, but did not include it, as a result, the German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet Zone, while the Federal Republic was established in the three western zones. East Germany, which lies culturally in Central Germany, was a state of the Soviet Union. Soviet occupation authorities began transferring administrative responsibility to German communist leaders in 1948, Soviet forces, however, remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Until 1989, the GDR was governed by the Socialist Unity Party, though other parties participated in its alliance organisation. The economy was centrally planned, and increasingly state-owned, prices of basic goods and services were set by central government planners, rather than rising and falling through supply and demand. Although the GDR had to pay war reparations to the USSR. Nonetheless it did not match the growth of West Germany. Emigration to the West was a significant problem—as many of the emigrants were well-educated young people, the government fortified its western borders and, in 1961, built the Berlin Wall. Many people attempting to flee were killed by guards or booby traps. In 1989, numerous social and political forces in the GDR and abroad led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the following year open elections were held, and international negotiations led to the signing of the Final Settlement treaty on the status and borders of Germany. The GDR was dissolved and Germany was unified on 3 October 1990, internally, the GDR also bordered the Soviet sector of Allied-occupied Berlin known as East Berlin which was also administered as the states de facto capital. It also bordered the three sectors occupied by the United States, United Kingdom and France known collectively as West Berlin. The three sectors occupied by the Western nations were sealed off from the rest of the GDR by the Berlin Wall from its construction in 1961 until it was brought down in 1989, the official name was Deutsche Demokratische Republik, usually abbreviated to DDR. West Germans, the media and statesmen purposely avoided the official name and its abbreviation, instead using terms like Ostzone, Sowjetische Besatzungszone. The centre of power in East Berlin was referred to as Pankow. Over time, however, the abbreviation DDR was also used colloquially by West Germans. However, this use was not always consistent, for example, before World War II, Ostdeutschland was used to describe all the territories east of the Elbe, as reflected in the works of sociologist Max Weber and political theorist Carl Schmitt
20.
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/
21.
Santragachhi
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Santragachhi or Santragachi is a neighbourhood of Howrah city in West Bengal, India. It has a station which serves as a railway junction for the South Eastern Railway. Santragachi is mostly a residential locality with a railway colony with some industries including a HLL. Santragachi is also polular for its large lake known as Santragachhi Jheel which attracts birds such as lesser whistling duck in the winter months. In the early century, Santragachhi was a large village. According to a legend, the family there, the Chaudhuris. Inspired by them, other Barendra families moved to the place, the railway station of Santragachhi was named after this place, though this place is closer to another railway station at Ramrajatala. Ramrajatala area was considered a quarter of the area under this village, first vernacular school of the Howrah district was established in Santragachhi in 1857 with the help of a Government grant. For Indian girls, the first girls school of the Howrah district with Indian management was established in Santragachhi in 1863, Santragachhi produced good quality of arums. There is a variety of Amorphophallus paeoniifolius which is named Santragachhi after this place, Santragachhi is located at 22. 58017°N88. 26963°E /22.58017,88.26963. Other neighbourhoods of Howrah that surround Santragachhi are Ramrajatala, Jagacha, Bakshara, Unsani, earstwhile Bengal Nagpur Railway, now known as South Eastern Railway, was connected to Howrah station in 1900. Santragachhi railway station is now a railway junction, there are plans of developing Santragachhi junction into a full fledged terminal, with more trains originating and departing from here, over next 3-4 years to reduce congestion on Howrah Station. Santragachhi is also close to Kona Expressway, which connects to Kolkata via Vidyasagar Setu and towards rest of the NH6, Santragachhi is the main Railway coaching yard of South Eastern Railways Kharagpur Division. Maintenance of more than 50 long or short-distance trains has been done here, the class-one flat yard consists of a diesel locomotive shed, an electric locomotive shed, washing and sick lines and a railway turntable. Spread over 12.38 acres of land, the Central Bus Terminus- is the fructification of the joint efforts by the transport department, HRBC. While Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority has chipped in handing over a vast 12.38 acres of land to install the facility, chief minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurated the terminus on 27 May 2015. The terminus have a capacity for 169 buses,100 for other vehicles. Jagacha High School, Surendranath Girls High School, Jagacha Girls High School, Buxarah High School, Santragachi Kedarnath Institution, Dharsa Mihirlal Khan Institution, Railway Mixed Higher secondary School and St. Marys Convent School
22.
B. B. D. Bagh
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Bagh, formerly called Dalhousie Square, is the shortened version for Benoy-Badal-Dinesh Bagh. It is the seat of power of the government, as well as the central business district in Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal. Stands for three young Indian independence freedom fighters — Benoy, Badal and Dinesh — who on 8 December 1930 shot dead the Inspector General of Prisons, simpson, in the balconies of the Writers Building of the then Dalhousie Square. The square had been named after Lord Dalhousie, Governor General of India from 1847 to 1856, at different times it has been called ‘The Green before the Fort’ or Tank Square. Bagh area is near the Hooghly River in the part of central Kolkata and is a square built around the old Lal Dighi tank. The old fort built by the British was near where the General Post Office now is, the area was in the heart of Kalikata or the White Town in old Calcutta. Bagh was created as the center of the British East India Companys trading post along the banks of the Hooghly River, between the river and the tank, lay the original Fort William. In the summer of 1756, Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah of Bengal, Bihar, the survivors of the attack were sent to a garrison within the fort which spurred an incident infamously known as the Black Hole of Calcutta. The British soon retook the city after the Nawab retreated from the forces of Robert Clive, within a year, the British East India Companys forces had taken all of Bengal and Calcutta, along with the square, was established as the commercial and political center of British India. Over the next one and a half centuries, the square grew in importance and influence and it was named after Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General of India. After the fall of company rule in India, the Writers Building became the secretariat of the Viceroy of India, a number of corporations and institutions opened offices and headquarters in and around the square, giving it its role as the central business district of the city. In 1912, the capital of British India was officially moved to New Delhi, during the first half of the 20th century, the Indian Independence Movement began to reach its peak and took a violent turn in Bengal. On the eighth of December 1930, three revolutionaries, Benoy, Badal, and Dinesh, stormed the building and fatally shot the Inspector General of Prisons, the three committed suicide and the square was renamed B. B. D. Bagh in their honor after Indian independence, in 1947, the political establishments were officially handed over to the government of India and the government of the newly formed state of West Bengal. Over the next few decades, Calcutta would go through rapid economic decline, Bagh would remain the heart of East India. Bagh is still the commercial and political center of all of East India and many of the business, the centerpiece is the Writers Building which is the secretariat of the Government of the State of West Bengal and houses the office of the Chief Minister of West Bengal. The native name of the area is Office Para, to the north lie the Royal Exchange Building which houses the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Calcutta Stock Exchange, the Standard Chartered Building, and many financial establishments. The eastern end also houses a number of offices till Chittaranjan Avenue, the area south of the square is home to the Raj Bhavan, which is now the residence of the governor and the former residence of the viceroy and governor-general of India
23.
Indira Gandhi
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Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was an Indian politician and central figure of the Indian National Congress party, and to date the only female Prime Minister of India. Indira Gandhi was the daughter of Indias first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, despite her surname Gandhi, she is not related to the family of nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi. She served as Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977 and then again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984, Gandhi served as her fathers personal assistant and hostess during his tenure as prime minister between 1947 and 1964. She was elected Congress President in 1959, upon her fathers death in 1964, Gandhi refused to enter the Congress party leadership contest and instead chose to become a cabinet minister in the government led by Lal Bahadur Shastri. As the Prime Minister of India, Gandhi was known for her political ruthlessness, Gandhi also presided over a controversial state of emergency from 1975 to 1977 during which she ruled by decree. Akin to Mahatma Gandhis fate, she was assassinated by nationalists in 1984. The assassins, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, were both killed, in 1999, Indira was named Woman of the Millennium in a poll organised by the BBC. Indira Gandhi was born as Indira Nehru in a Kashmiri Pandit family on 19 November 1917 in Allahabad and her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, was a leading figure in Indias political struggle for independence from British rule, and became the first Prime Minister of the Union of India. She was the child, and grew up with her mother, Kamala Nehru, at the Anand Bhavan. She had a lonely and unhappy childhood and her father was often away, directing political activities or incarcerated, while her mother was frequently bed-ridden with illness, and later suffered an early death from tuberculosis. She had limited contact with her father, mostly through letters, Indira was mostly taught at home by tutors, and intermittently attended school until matriculation in 1934. It was during her interview that Rabindranath Tagore named her Priyadarshini, a year later, however, she had to leave university to attend to her ailing mother in Europe. While there, it was decided that Indira would continue her education at the University of Oxford, after her mother died, she briefly attended the Badminton School before enrolling at Somerville College in 1937 to study history. Indira had to take the entrance examination twice, having failed at her first attempt with a performance in Latin. At Oxford, she did well in history, political science and economics and she did, however, have an active part within the student life of the university, such as the Oxford Majlis Asian Society. During her time in Europe, Indira was plagued with ill-health and was attended by doctors. She had to make repeated trips to Switzerland to recover, disrupting her studies and she was being treated there in 1940, when the Nazi armies rapidly conquered Europe. Gandhi tried to return to England through Portugal but was stranded for nearly two months
24.
Prime Minister of India
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The Prime Minister of India is the Head of Government and leader of the executive branch of the Government of India. The Prime Minister is also the adviser to the President of India. He or she can be a member of any of the two houses of Parliament, but has to be the leader of the party, having a majority in the Lok Sabha. The Prime Minister is the member of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The Prime Minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, allocates posts to members within the Government, is the presiding member and chairman of the cabinet. The federal or union cabinet headed by the Prime Minister is appointed by the President of India to assist the latter in the administration of the affairs of the executive, Union cabinet is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha as per Article 75. The Prime Minister shall always enjoy the confidence of Lok Sabha, India follows a parliamentary system in which the prime minister is the presiding, actual head of the government and chief of the executive branch. In such systems, the head of state or the head of states official representative usually holds a ceremonial position. The Prime Minister shall become a member of parliament within six months of beginning his/her tenure, he/She is expected to work with other central ministers to ensure the passage of bills by the Parliament. There shall be a Council of Ministers with the minister at the head to aid and advise the president who shall, in the exercise of his functions. The Prime Minister shall be appointed by the President and the other Ministers shall be appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister. Like most parliamentary democracies, a Presidents duties are mostly ceremonial as long as the constitution and the rule of law is obeyed by the Union Cabinet, the Prime Minister of India is the head of union government and has the responsibility for executive power. The prime minister leads the functioning and exercise of authority of the government of India. President of India invites a person who is commanding support of majority members of Lok Sabha to form government at the federal level, in practice the prime minister nominates the members of their Council of Ministers to the president. They also work upon to decide a core group of Ministers as in-charge of the important functions, some specific ministries/department are not allocated to anyone in the cabinet but the prime minister himself. Per Article 78 of the constitution, the communication between the union cabinet and the president are through the prime minister. Other wise constitution recognises the prime minister as a member of the cabinet only outside the sphere of union cabinet. Be a member of the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha
25.
Minister of Railways (India)
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The Minister of Railways is the head of the Ministry of Railways of the Government of India. The railway minister is usually accorded a rank, and is responsible for Indian Railways. An important responsibility of the minister is to present in Parliament the Railway Budget. Suresh Prabhu of the Bharatiya Janata Party is the current Minister of Railways, Railway Ministers of Independent India at the Indian Railways Fan Club
26.
A. B. A. Ghani Khan Choudhury
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His ancestors were from a town in Iraq and migrated to India. He was also the former Railway Minister of India for a short term and he worked toward establishing the Malda Town railway station as one of the most important stations of the region. A Muslim by faith, he was first elected as an MLA to the West Bengal state legislative assembly in 1957 and he was first elected to the 7th Lok Sabha in 1980, from Malda constituency. He was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 1984,1989,1991,1996,1998,1999 and 2004 from the same constituency and he served as president of the West Bengal Congress and as a general secretary to the All India Congress Committee. He was the Minister of Railways in Indira Gandhis and Rajiv Gandhis government 1982 to 1989 and he took active part in introducing the Kolkata Metro Railway and Circular Railways in the city of Kolkata. His surviving siblings, both politicians, are Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury and Rubi Noor, despite some allegations made by his opponents, he continues to be one of the most talked about personalities in the history of Malda. Deccan Herald,15 April 2006 Obituary Ghani Khans death leaves a void in politics, The Hindu,15 April 20062004 Election profile The monarch of Malda, Hindustan Times,8 April 2004
27.
Esplanade, Kolkata
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Esplanade is an area in central Kolkata, earlier known as Calcutta, in the Indian state of West Bengal. This is not a conventional esplanade in the sense that the place is not exactly situated alongside a waterbody, however, the river Ganga, also known as the Ganges or the Hooghly, flows nearby. The Esplanade was the given to the northern portion of jungle. In olden days, it stretched from Dhurmotollah to Chandpal Ghat on the Hooghly River, in the days of Warren Hastings, it formed a favourite promenade for elegant walking parties. The first pictures of the area is at the end of century by Daniell. The old Government House and the Council House were conspicuous objects in each drawing and he slso presented an addition view in the shape of two elephants with a crowd of attendants. Bourne & Shepherd, photographic studio was established here in 1867 by British photographers, Samuel Bourne and Charles Shepherd, the strengthening of British power, subsequent to their victory in the Battle of Plassey was followed by the construction of the new Fort William, in 1758. The European inhabitants of Kalikata gradually forsook the narrow limits of the old palisades, the first recorded soccer match in Kolkata was played on the Esplanade in the second week of April 1858 between the Calcutta Club of Civilians and the Gentlemen of Barrakpur. There had been matches earlier but those were not documented, a number of roads and streets form part of or have been linked integrally with the Esplanade for many years. Subsequently, it was divided by the gardens of Government House into two parts, Esplanade Row and Esplanade Row, Esplanade Row now runs between Government Place and Strand Road, through the High Court. Esplanade Row has been renamed Sidhu Kanu Dahar and occupies the end of the Maidan. As a result of the movement of Europeans from the old palisades in the eighteenth century, the most important public buildings and imposing private houses lined the northern side of the Esplanade, facing the Maidan on the south. “Esplanade Row, ” wrote Mrs. Fay, “seems to be composed of palaces. ”The Tipu Sultan Mosque is at the junction of Esplanade Row, Old Court House Street connects Esplanade Row with B. B. D. Bagh, earlier known as Dalhousie Square. It acquired its name from the Old Court house, that was located where St. Andrews Church now stands and it served originally as the Supreme Court, until it was demolished in 1792. The northern part of the stretch is known as B. B. D and it was constructed around 1781, when the finishing touches were put to the new Fort William. It is linked with the name of Col. Henry Watson, the Red Road is an extension of this street. The stretch of Old Court House Street from the crossing with Ganesh Avenue or the corner of B. B. D. Bagh to the crossing with Waterloo Street has been renamed Hemanta Bose Sarani. The stretch from the crossing with Waterloo Street to the crossing with Rani Rashmoni Avenue has been renamed Marx-Engels Bithi, Council House Street connects the western part of B. B. D. Bagh with Esplanade Row
28.
Bhowanipore
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Bhowanipore or Bhabanipur is the oldest locality of South Kolkata. It is located just south of the Lower Circular Road. It is the second largest locality in South Kolkata after Ballygunge, Bhowanipore is perhaps the first posh south Kolkata neighbourhood. In the early 19th century, it was just a village on the southern outskirts of the city of Calcutta. By the early 1850s it developed into a home to many immigrants into the city from the countryside of East Bengal. These immigrants were literate and prosperous and just wanted to settle outside the more famous localities of northern Kolkata. The Lower Circular Road had just been constructed and the area just south of the road home to many Indians who wanted to live in proximity to the city. Many Englishmen also took fancy to the area and they began settling in the area. Initially the locality was bounded by Lansdowne Road to the east, Russa Road to the west, but it expanded much more to the west, far beyond Harish Mukherjee Road to the Tolly Nullah. The Jadu Babus Bazaar on Asutosh Mukherjee Road was the heart of south Kolkata before Gariahat even developed and it is still the major market for the locality. Bhowanipore was also known as the hall area of the city. Number of cinema halls like Purna, Indira, Bijoli, etc. screened Bengali, many of the halls are now closed down due to lack of patronage. Since the start of the 20th century, the area home to a large number of immigrants from other parts of India. Sikhs, Gujaratis and Tamils now form a population of the locality. Bhowanipore has also has its share of 21st century commercialization sweeping Kolkata and it is home to Kolkatas first mall-cum-multiplex - The Forum mall on Elgin Road with its Inox multiplex. Many big companies have their office in Bhowanipore, like Exide Industries Limited, Tata Tea Limited. The head office of Automobile Association Of Eastern India is also located in this area, a club in the name of Bhowanipore Club founded by one Nani Mitra stands at the entrance of the Maidan near the Rani Rashmani Statue and presently managed by the Sangbad Pratidin group. The Kolkata Metro serves the area with the Rabindra Sadan, Netaji Bhavan, united Missionary Girls High School, Mukherjee Road. Mitra Institution, Harish Mukherjee Road St. Johns Diocesan Girls Higher Secondary School Hartleys High/Pvt, bijon Bhattacharya, eminent theater artist, director and famous Bengali play writer, also husband of eminent international award winning social worker and writer Smt. Mahasweta Devi
29.
Line 1, Kolkata Metro
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The Line 1, also known as North–South Metro of the Kolkata Metro is a rapid transit system serving Kolkata, South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas in Indian state of West Bengal. It consists of 23 stations from Kavi Subhash to Dum Dum, of which 6 are elevated,2 are at grade, the line connects Dum Dum and New Garia and uses 5 ft 6 in Broad gauge rolling stock. Noapara is opened on 10 July 2013 and it is elevated and is located 2.09 km. north of Dum Dum. So now, Metro runs a total of 27.39 Kilometers from Noapara to Kavi Subhash where there are total 24 nos. of Stations. It was the first underground railway to be built in India, with the first operations commencing in October,1984, on 28 December 2010, it became the 17th zone of the Indian Railways. As a result, it took nearly 23 years to construct around 15 km underground railway from Birpara up to just before of Tollygunj Metro Station. The laying of the stone was done in 1972. Line 1 is 17 km. long with 17 stations, running of the first metro car on the line by 1984 was considered a great engineering challenge. Former railways minister A. B. A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury took a massive effort to perform it. The first section opened between Esplanade & Bhowanipore, first day Metro Railway Kolkata were started by Sri Tapan Kumar Nath and Sri Sanjay Sil. There were no connections of this stretch with the two depots at Dum Dum & Tollygunge, so metro cars had to be put down on the track near Esplanade by crane, by directly digging the road surface. Initially, only four car trains were run until 1986, there were no magnetic gates or escalators at that time and ordinary revolving gates served as exits. The Metro too operated on only a single line, two years later, line 1 extended up to Tollygunge, at the southern end. At the same time, the service was extended to the double line. Magnetic tickets and more entry gates were introduced at that time. The number of compartments in each train was increased to eight, Metro service was also started from Dum Dum, at the northern end, to Belgachhia in parallel with the extension of the line to the south. But this short portion was not popular and the service was closed down to be restarted when the stretch along the north–south corridor was completed. After 1986 many political incidents hampered the construction, and work almost stopped for six years. After restarting work, the Dum Dum to Shyambazar metro service was started in 1994 and this portion was served by four car trains
30.
Kolkata Metro Line 2
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It would consist of 12 stations from Salt Lake Sector V in the east to Howrah Maidan in the west, of which 6 would be elevated and 6 would be underground, with a total distance of 14.67 km. The master plan had identified the corridor way back in 1971. In January 2004, Pacific Consultant International Group conducted a feasibility study for the line, the report proposed the route and tubular structures under the Hooghly River. A new organisation was formed known as Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited which will be executing the operations of this Line thus starting the construction in 2009. Of KMRCs eight directors, four each are from the state, the cost is being shared between the state government, the Union Urban Development Ministry, and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. But as of 2011 most of the share of this went to Indian Railways with Japan Bank for International Cooperation. The project is estimated at a cost of ₹50 billion, but due to some major set backs the project got delayed. These were mainly due to Land Acquisition, slum relocation and route alignment problems, the East-West Metro was originally slated to be operational by 2012, but is later pushed back to 2015. The first phase, a stretch of 9 km, is expected to be operational in June 2018. As of Feb 2017, Elevated Corridor, Out of the length of 5.75 KM,5.374 KM have been completed leaving 365 meters in Duttabad to be completed. The land problem at Duttabad have been resolved in November 2015, rehabilitation of people living in this area have started after collaboration between state and central government. Construction of piers have been completed at Duttabad and elevated corridor is being built,3.4 KM of ballast less track have been laid on the elevated section. 6 Elevated Station, Structural work for elevated stations have been completed, roofing work in all the elevated stations except for Salt Lake Sector V have been completed. Architectural and electrical work is yet to start, Underground Tunnel for Phase 1,5490 meters of tunnel have been constructed. Two tunnel boring machines have been deployed in this section, all the cross passes between the two tunnels have also been completed. Underground Stations for Phase 1, Underground stations are to be constructed by cut, Underground Tunnel for Phase 2, Work at Howrah Maidan have started in April 2016. Two tunnel boring machines from Herrenknecht are being used to dig the tunnel and this section will pass through the river Hooghly for a distance of 520 meters. The section under the river will be at a depth of 30 meters whereas the average roof to ground distance is 17 meters, the Howrah station on the west side of the river will be at a depth of 24 meters
31.
Bidhannagar
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Bidhannagar, or Salt Lake City as it is popularly called, is a planned satellite town in the Indian state of West Bengal. It was developed between 1958 and 1965 to accommodate the population of Kolkata. It is now a hub of economic and social expansion and is famous as the centre for IT in the city, at the 2011 census, Bidhannagar had a population of 218,323. Bidhannagar has an literacy rate of 90. 44%, with male literacy of 93. 08%. Bidhannagar is located at 22. 58°N88. 42°E /22.58,88.42 and it has an average elevation of 11 metres. Demographically this is the most enriched part of Kolkata as it is very near to the airport, many of the fast-growing IT companies are located in this area. The said attack led to the massacre in Black Hole Prison that occurred on 20 June. Gradually, the right of the went to the hands of local landlords. In 1865, the British officially started reclaiming these salt water bodies by connecting it with Mahratta Ditch, in 1878, the Government leased out the right of the place to Nandalal Das and Durgacharan Kundu till 1887. On 30 April 1890, the Government again advertised in the newspaper and gave the right to the highest bidder, Bhabanath Sen. The said right ended in 1899, in 1906, the Government again leased out the lakes for 10 years to the highest bidder against INR9750. The basic area included the mauzas, that is, Hadia, Nayabad, Karimpur, Jagatipota, Mukundapur, Pargachhia, Tentulbari, Panchpota, in 1958, the Chief Minister Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy visited the area for the first time. The global tender for the reclamation of the salt water lakes was floated in 1959 and was won by M/s, the area was a conglomerate of several salt lakes in a low-lying saucer shaped area which was lower than the adjoining drainage channels. The only available method of development was to fill the lakes to a higher level which would permit gravity drainage through the nearby channels. The Hooghly river, lying in the fringe of Kolkata. By May 19,1956, the Government had taken control of the lands and, gradually, the Yugoslav firm Invest Import Company was entrusted with the reclamation work of the swampy land area. Pipes were laid down from Chitpur lockgate in the north of Kolkata to Salt Lake for transporting silt from the bed of the Hooghly river to Salt Lake via a number of pumping stations. It took nearly 7 years to fill the 12.35 km² of land with dredged silt, on 16 April 1962, Salt Lake City was officially born
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