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The newly carved West Central Railway Zone with its
headquarters at Jabalpur comprises of Jabalpur and
Bhopal divisions of erstwhile Central Railway and Kota
division of erstwhile Western Railway. The formal
gazette notification announcing the formation of this
new zonal railway was issued on 4th July 2002 by the
Ministry of Railway, Govt. of India.
 The territorial jurisdiction of West Central Railway
stretches from Khandwa excluding to Manikpur (excluding
on the Mumbai-Howrah route via Itarsi- Jabalpur in the
west east direction and from Mathura (excluding to Nagda
(excluding on Delhi-Mumbai route via Ratlam forming a
part of one of the important diagonal and side of golden
quadrilateral of Indian Railways. In the north-south
direction the zone has Bina (Including)-Bhopal-Itarsi
(Including section of Delhi- Chennai trunk route. In
addition important freight corridor of New Kati On-Line
and branch line sections of Katni-Singrauli, Satna-Rewa,
Jukehi-Kymore, Bina-Guna-Kota, Kota- Chanderiya
(excluding) and Maksi (excluding Guna-Gwalior (excluding
are also within the jurisdiction of this new zonal
railway-West Central Railway caters to 39 districts (24
of M.P.13 of Rajasthan and 2 of U. P.). It has a total
route kilometers of 2911 kms. of which 1328 route kms.
are electrified.
Important stations served by this railway include
Jabalpur, Bhopal, Kota, Habibganj, Itarsi, Bina, Vidisha,
Ganjbasoda, Hoshangabad, Harda, Guna, Katni, Satna,
Saugor, Maihar, Narsinghpur, Madanmahal, Pipariya, Damoh,
Sawai Madhopur, Gangapur city, Bharatpur, Ramganj Mandi,
Baran, Chau Mahla, Shri Mahavirji etc. West Central
Railway has a fair balance of passenger and freight
traffic. On the freight side the most important
originating traffic is of cement which is loaded in
Satna-Rewa cluster of Jabalpur division. Lakheri,
Dadhdevi, Morak stations of Kota division. Other
originating commodities handled include bauxite,
limestone, dolomite and clinker on Jabalpur division,
LPG and POL on Bhopal division fertifilizer on Kota and
Bhopal divisions, deoiled cake on Bhopal and Jabalpur
divisions and food grain on Bhopal division. The daily
average loading of this Railway is about 2200 four
wheeler wagons, the annual originating revenue earning
loading is approximately 19 million tones whereas the
originating annual goods earning is approximate rupees.
857.51 crores. On the passenger side this railway deals
with 254 no. of mail express and 74 no of passenger
trains including 16 pair of Rajdhani/Shatabdi trains and
4 pair of Jan-Shatabdi trains. Approx. 75 million
passengers originate their journey every year on this
railway giving a passenger earning of approx. Rs. 386
crores. After accounting for other coaching earnings
including parcel traffic of Rs. 25.64 crores the overall
total annual earning of this railway comes to approx Rs.
1269 crores.
 West Central Railway has two major marshalling yards at
New Katni Jn. And Itarsi Jn. It also has three electric
loco sheds at New Katni, Itarsi and Tuglakabad with a
total fleet of 349 electric locomotives and two diesel
loco sheds at New katni and Itarsi with a total fleet of
349 diesel locomotives to keep the traffic moving on its
routes, To keep the fleet of nearly 700 locomotives in
good fettle all the time is a mammoth task and a
challenge which is successfully met by this railway. In
addition there is a coach repair workshop at Bhopal and
a wagon workshop at Kota which are engaged in the
activity of heavy repairs to passenger coaches and POH
of goods wagons especially of oil tank wagons.
This railway has a total officers and staff strength of
65477 who are responsible to ensure that the wheel of
the rail is always moving. They work round the clock
with sincerity and devotion to fulfill the aspirations
of people from Harot to Mahakoshal and from Malwa to
Bundelkhand. If you are fond of the call of jungle then
W. C. Railway promises to take you to national reserve
forests of Kanha-Kisli, Bandhavgrh, Ranthambore, and
Shivpur and bird sanctuary of bharatpur. If you wish to
enjoy the scenic beauty of hills then visit Pachmarhi.
If you have interest in historical monuments then plan
your trip of Khajuraho, Sanchi or Bhimbetka. If you are
religious minded you may like to pay homage at Maa
Sharda Devi Temple at Maihar, Shri Raj Rajeshwari temple
at Shridham, Mahdev Temple near Bandakpur, jain temple
at shri Mahavirji or Birla Temple at Bhopal or Nagda.
For leisure tourism one may think of pleasant boating
between marble rocks near Jabalpur or visit Kota and
bundi forts.
The officers and staff of West Central Railway are
resolved to fulfill the aspiration of people through
their dedicated effort and team work and are committed
to lead this railway in the pursuit of excellence
through modernization and economy. |
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