1.
MEMU
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The Mainline Electric Multiple Unit or MEMU is a commuter rail system in India operated by the Indian Railway for semi-urban and rural areas. The first MEMU service in Bilaspur division of S E Railway started on 17-10-1995 in 1995-96 between Raipur-Durg-Bhatapara-Raipur-Bilaspur, first train was inaugurated by V. C. Shukla, the senior leader of Indian national congress. The system uses Mainline Electrical Multiple Units operating on Alternating Current drawn from over-head cables through the catenary system, MEMU trains are designed for semi-urban and rural areas, unlike EMU trains that are designed for urban and semi-urban areas. MEMU trains also have end vestibules not found on EMU trains, also, unlike EMU, MEMU trains have lavatories. Railway introduces passenger-friendly technology in MEMU trains, list of all MEMU trains operated by Indian Railways Indian Railways Fan Club Photo Gallery, MEMU MEMU/DEMU Electric/Diesel Multiple Unit Shuttle Trains - Railway Enquiry
2.
Kollam
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Kollam or Quilon, formerly Desinganadu, is an old seaport and city on the Laccadive Sea coast of Kerala, India. The city is on the banks Ashtamudi Lake, Kollam has had a strong commercial reputation since the days of the Phoenicians and Romans. Fed by the Chinese trade, it was mentioned by Ibn Battuta in the 14th century as one of the five Indian ports he had seen during the course of his twenty-four year travels, desinganadus rajas exchanged embassies with Chinese rulers while there was a flourishing Chinese settlement at Kollam. In the 9th Century, on his way to Canton, China, Marco Polo, the great Venetian traveller, who was in Chinese service under Kublai Khan in 1275, visited Kollam and other towns on the west coast, in his capacity as a Chinese mandarin. V. Nagam Aiya in his Travancore State Manual records that in 822 AD two East Syrian bishops Mar Sabor and Mar Proth, settled in Quilon with their followers. Two years later the Malabar Era began and Quilon became the city of the Malabar region ahead of Travancore. Kollam is a city on the banks of Ashtamudi Lake that took the title Gods Own Country without much demur. The braids of Ashtamudi Lake lie about 71 kilometres north of the state capital, the city hosts the administrative offices of Kollam district and is a prominent trading city for the state. The proportion of females to males in Kollam city is second highest among the 500 most populous cities in India, Kollam is the least polluted city in India. Four major trading centers/towns around Kollam are Kottarakara, Punalur, Paravur, There was also internal trade through the Punalur Pass connecting the ancient town to Tamil Nadu. The rail links later established to Tamil Nadu supported still stronger trade links, the factories processing marine exports and the processing and packaging of cashewnuts extended its trade across the globe. Kollam is the fourth most populous city in Kerala and the fifth largest in incorporated area and it is known for cashew processing and coir manufacturing. Ashtamudi Lake is considered the gateway to the backwaters of Kerala and is a prominent tourist destination at Kollam. The Kollam urban area includes towns such as Paravur in the south, Kundara in the east. Other important towns in the city suburbs are Eravipuram, Kottiyam, Kannanallur, Kollam appeared as Palombe in Mandevilles Travels, where he claimed it contained a Fountain of Youth. During the later stages of the rule of the Chera monarchy in Kerala, Kollam emerged as the point of trade. Kollam continues to be a business and commercial centre in the Southern Kerala. In 825 CE, the Malayalam calendar, or Kollavarsham, was created in Kollam at meetings held in the city, the present Malayalam calendar is said to have begun with the re-founding of the town, which was rebuilt after its destruction by a fire
3.
Kollam Junction railway station
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Kollam Junction railway station is a junction station situated in the city of Kollam in Kerala, India. It is the second largest railway station in Kerala in terms of area and is one of the oldest railway stations in the state, indias second longest railway platform is situated at Kollam railway station. Kollam Junction lies on Kollam-Thiruvananthapuram trunk line and it is an A-class station operated by the Southern Railway Zone of the Indian Railways and comes under the Thiruvananthapuram railway division. The annual passenger revenue of Kollam railway station is ₹60.44 crore and 23,350 is the daily ridership through this station. Kollam was the city in Kerala to be connected to the nascent Indian Railway. The idea of a link from Tirunelveli to Kollam, then the trading capital of the Travancore Kingdom was first conceived in 1873. The line was sanctioned by the Madras Presidency in 1899 and a survey completed in 1900, the railway line was built jointly by South Indian railway, Travancore state and the Madras Presidency. Kollams railway station was built in 1904 by Sree Moolam Tirunal Rama Varma and it was the ruler’s desire to create a rail link between Kollam, the then commercial capital of his State and Madras. The meter gauge line from Kollam to Punalur was inaugurated on 1 June 1904, the Kollam-Sengottai railway line was inaugurated on 26 November 1904. The meter gauge line was extended to Chala at Trivandrum via Paravur and Varkala. The meter gauge line from Kollam was extended to Ernakulam via Kottayam on 6 January 1958. The meter gauge lines between Kollam and Ernakulam were converted to broad gauge in 1975 and inaugurated on 13 September 1976, the broad gauge conversion between the Punalur and Kollam sections was inaugurated on 12 May 2010. There was once a 2.4 kilometres meter gauge line connecting Quilon Junction, during the inauguration of the Kollam-Punalur meter gauge line in 1904, parts of locomotives which were to be used for Quilon-Schencottah line were shipped to Quilon Port from Tuticorin Port. They were assembled at the Ashramam Maidan, which was an open ground, the line was laid to carry these locomotives to the main station. The line was dismantled in 2000 to allow for town expansion, there are a total of 17 tracks in the Kollam railway station,2 lines are passing through the MEMU shed. The station has 6 platforms for handling long distance, passenger, the platform 1 is divided into two sections. Platform 1A handles the trains to Punalur-Sengottai line and platform 1 handles trains towards Trivandrum Central, the platform 1 and 1A together have a length of 1,180.5 m making them together the second longest railway platform in India. The station has a MEMU shed which is situated near to Platform 1A, an FCI godown owned and operated by Food Corporation of India is also situated near Kollam junction.68 crore, for Mainline Electric Multiple Unit rakes
4.
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
5.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
6.
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
7.
Southern Railway zone
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The Southern Railway, headquartered at Chennai Central, is one of the 17 zones of Indian Railways. It is the earliest of the 17 zones of the Indian Railways created in independent India and it was created on 14 April 1951 by merging three state railways, namely, the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway, the South Indian Railway Company, and the Mysore State Railway. The South Indian Railway was originally created in the British colonial times as Great Southern India Railway Co founded in Britain in 1853 and its original headquarters was in Tiruchirappalli and was registered as a company in London only in 1890. In 1944, all Railway companies were taken over by the Government, and three years later, when India woke up to independence in 1947, the stage was set for the integration of different Railways into smaller zones. In 1948, immediately after independence, there were as many as 42 different railway systems - a multiplicity of railway administrations, varying in size and standards. The regrouping proposals put forward by the committees were studied in great detail to ensure that a unification could be achieved with the least disturbance. Important associations of railway-users, Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the State Governments, shri N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar - the then Minister for Railways, was the principal architect of the regrouping of Indian Railways. The Southern Railway zone 9,654 kilometres was the first zone to be formed and this amalgamation was a major step towards streamlining and organizing the working pattern of the Railway system. Shri K R Ramanujam was appointed the first General Manager of the newly formed Southern Railways, the Southern Railway is headed by the General Manager Officer, assisted by an Additional General Manager. Each department is headed by a PHOD\CHOD of the rank of HAG\SAG, more than 50 crore passengers travel on the network every year. This zone of the Indian Railways differs from the zones of India in that its revenue is derived from passengers
8.
Electric multiple unit
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An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages, using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as traction motors are incorporated within one or a number of the carriages. An EMU is usually formed of two or more semi-permanently coupled carriages, but electrically powered single-unit railcars are also classed as EMUs. EMUs are popular on commuter and suburban rail networks around the world due to their fast acceleration, being quieter than DMUs and locomotive-drawn trains, EMUs can operate later at night and more frequently without disturbing residents living near the railway lines. The first EMUs were used on the elevated Liverpool Overhead Railway in 1893, the southern terminal of the railway was underground, giving the LOR the distinction of also being the first to use EMUs underground. Each carriage had a traction motor and was specifically designed and constructed to be light in weight while running on elevated steel sections. The first EMUs were two-carriage trains later graduating to three carriages, with the front and rear carriages powered, Liverpool Museum retains an example of the Liverpool Overhead Railway EMU carriage. An early proponent of EMUs was the American engineer Frank J. Sprague, the cars that form a complete EMU set can usually be separated by function into four types, power car, motor car, driving car, and trailer car. Each car can have more than one function, such as a car or power-driving car. A power car carries the equipment to draw power from the electrified infrastructure, such as pickup shoes for third rail systems and pantographs for overhead systems. Motor cars carry the traction motors to move the train, and are combined with the power car to avoid high-voltage inter-car connections. Driving cars are similar to a cab car, containing a drivers cab for controlling the train, an EMU will usually have two driving cars at its outer ends. Trailer cars are any cars that carry little or no traction or power related equipment, on third rail systems the outer vehicles usually carry the pick up shoes, with the motor vehicles receiving the current via intra-unit connections. Many modern 2-car EMU sets are set up as married pair units, while both units in a married pair are typically driving motors, the ancillary equipment are shared between the two cars in the set. Since neither car can operate without its partner, such sets are permanently coupled, advantages of married pair units include weight and cost savings over single-unit cars while allowing all cars to be powered, unlike a motor-trailer combination. Disadvantages include a loss of flexibility, as trains must be multiples of two cars, and a failure on a single car could force removing both it and its partner from service. The retired New York–Washington Metroliner service, first operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad and later by Amtrak, also featured high-speed electric multiple-unit cars, diesel multiple unit Battery electric multiple unit British electric multiple units Media related to Electric multiple unit at Wikimedia Commons
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Alappuzha railway station
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Alappuzha railway station is located at Alappuzha, Alappuzha District, in Kerala, India. The station is a station on the Ernakulam-Kayamkulam coastal railway line. The station is operated by the Southern Railway zone of the Indian Railways, the Ernakulam South -Alappuzha coastal railway line was opened on 16 October 1989. The railway line was extended to Kayamkulam in 1992. Alappuzha railway station has 3 platforms to handle long distance and passenger trains, Alappuzha is an important tourist destination in Kerala. The backwaters of Alappuzha are one among the most popular tourist attractions in Kerala, Alappuzha is also the access point for the annual Nehru Trophy Boat Race. Alappuzha railway station acts as a gateway for visiting the tourist attractions in. Ernakulam-Kayamkulam coastal railway line Thiruvananthapuram Railway division
10.
Ernakulam Junction railway station
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Ernakulam Junction railway station is a major railway junction station in the city of Kochi in Kerala, India. At ₹158 crore, it is the second largest in terms in passenger revenues in Kerala and it is an A1 classified station operated by the Southern Railway zone of the Indian Railways and comes under the Thiruvananthapuram railway division. Ernakulam North, Perumanur, Mattanchery Halt and CHTS were the newly opened stations on the route, in 1946 the station was converted into broad gauge as part of the Shoranur-CHTS line, linking it directly to the rest of India via the Mangalore-Jolarpet mainline at Shoranur Jn. In 1956 the Ernakulam-Kottayam meter gauge line was opened and further extended to Kollam in 1958, joining to the Kollam-Trivandrum line, since the opening of the Kottayam line made it a junction, Ernakulam South was renamed Ernakulam Junction, and Ernakulam North was renamed Ernakulam Town. This was what made Ernakulam Jn rise to prominence, which was then just a small wayside station en route to the much busier Cochin Harbour Terminus station. Until 1979 when the Kottayam line was converted into broad gauge, as the coastal line to Alappuzha was opened in 1989, Ernakulam Jn rose to the status of the most premier railway station in central Kerala. The station has six platforms to handle long trains and local trains. Its A1 classification is the highest a station can achieve on Indian Railways and it does have all amenities expected out of a major junction including a paid air-conditioned lounge with free WiFi, a library, rest room, childrens play areas etc. However, the station lacks the spread-out roominess and large area of similarly large stations. Ernakulam Junction was the first railway station in Kerala to have an escalator and it was installed on 9 September 2013. Currently all its platforms are served by escalators, the Diesel Loco Shed was set up in 1981 and handles around 56 diesel locomotives a month and employees 373 personnel. It undertakes repair, housing and maintenance of WDM2, WDM3A, WDG3A and WDS-6, Southern Railway zone Ernakulam Junction railway station at the India Rail Info
