The West Central Railway 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.
Geographical extension of WCR on Indian Railways Map -
Jabalpur Division- Itarsi (excluding) - Manikpur (excluding) Double line Non-electrified BG Sec.; Bina (excluding) - Katni Double line Electrified BG Sec.; Katni - Singrauli (excluding) Single line Non-electrified BG Sec.; & Satna - Rewa Single line Non-electrified BG Sec.
Bhopal Division- Khandwa (excluding) - Itarsi Double line Electrified BG Sec.; Itarsi - Bina Double line Electrified BG Sec.; Bina - Guna Single line Electrified BG Sec.; Guna - Gwalior (excluding) Single line Non-electrified BG Sec.; Ruthiyai - Maksi (excluding) Single line Non-electrified BG Sec.
Kota Division- Nagda (excluding) - Mathura (excluding) Double line Electrified BG Sec; Kota - Ruthiyai (excluding) Single line Electrified BG Sec.; Kota - Chanderiya Single line Non-electrified BG Sec.
Click here to see:- The System Map Of WCR
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 Katni 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 districts of M.P., 13 of Rajasthan and 2 of U.P.). It has a total route kilometers of 2997 kms. (Track kilometres-6295 kms.) of which 1627 route kms. are electrified. (Electrified Track kilometres-3972 kms.) Out of total route Km. of WCR, 2185 km (about 73 %) of its route falls in the State of M.P., 758 km (about 25 %) falls in Rajasthan and rest 54 km. comes under the jurisdiction of U.P.
Important stations served by this railway include Jabalpur, Bhopal & Kota of A1 Category Stations, Habibganj, Itarsi, Bina, Vidisha, Hoshangabad, Katni, Satna, Saugor, Maihar, Pipariya, Damoh, Sawai Madhopur,Bharatpur of A Category Stations and Ganjbasoda, Harda, Guna, Narsinghpur, Madanmahal, Gangapur city, Ramganj Mandi , Baran, Chau Mahala, Shri Mahabirji 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. In Financial Year 2016-17, the daily average loading of this Railway is about 1585 wagons, the annual originating revenue earning loading is approximately 36.45 million tonnes (amounting to approximately to Rs. 3253.22 crores). On the passenger side this railway deals with 608 no. of mail express and 143 no. of passenger trains including 9+2 pairs of Rajdhani/Shatabdi trains , 2 pairs of Jan-Shatabdi trains, 5 pairs of Garib Rath, 8 pairs of Duronto Exp. & 2 pairs of Suvidha Exp. Approx. 134.36 million (FY 2016-17) passengers originate their journey every year on this railway giving a passenger earning Rs. 3004.41 crores actual (FY 2016-17). After accounting for other coaching earnings including parcel traffic of Rs. 145.85 crores actual (FY 2016-17) the overall total annual earning of this railway comes to Rs. 9878.29 crores actual (FY 2016-17). Operating ratio of WCR in 2016-17 was 73.90%
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 (having holding of 188 Locomotives), Itarsi ( with holding of 189 Locomotives), and Tuglakabad (holding of 227 Locomotives), with a total fleet of 604 electric locomotives (as on Jan. 2017) and two diesel loco sheds at New katni (having holding of 229 Locomotives), and Itarsi ( with holding of 170 Locomotives), with a total fleet of 399 diesel locomotives (as on Jan. 2017) to keep the traffic moving on its routes, To keep the fleet of nearly 1003 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 Rehabilitation Workshop at Bhopal and a Wagon Repair 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. Coach Rehabilitation Workshop, Bhopal has re-furbished Model rakes having state-of-the-art features and passenger facilities/comforts for Mahamana Express (inaugurated on 22 Jan 2016). Prioritizing safety in operations, West Central Railway became the first zone of Indian Railways to eliminate all its unmanned level crossings by 31 Aug, 2015.
Some important ongoing projects of WCR are electrification work of Itarsi-Manikpur Sec.(510 Km.); new lines on Lalitpur-Khajuraho-Panna-Satna Sec.(283 Km.), Rewa-Sidhi-Singrauli Sec.(165 Km.) & on Ramganjmandi-Bhopal Sec. (262 Km.); doubling of Katni-Singrauli Sec. (261 Km.), Bina-Kota Sec. (282 Km.) & Satna-Rewa Sec.(50 Km.) and tripling project of Bina-Habibganj-Barkheda-Budni-Itarsi Sec.(total 242 Km.). The foundation stone of Diesel Locomotive Traction Alternator Workshop has been laid in Vidisha of Bhopal division in 2015 for the purpose of indigenously manufacturing some important components to be used in Diesel Locomotives.
This railway has a total officers and staff strength of 56022 (On Roll as on Jan. 2017) 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. To provide aesthetic sense to our stations, very beautiful and picturesque paintings depicting the wide variety of flora & fauna of the regions have been created on the walls, pillars and ceilings of Sawai Mahopur and Bharatpur stations of Kota division by a team of local painters. Habibganj and Sawai Mahopur stations of WCR have been awarded with the Best Tourist Friendly Station Trophy of Indian Railways in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
The officers and staff of West Central Railway are resolved to fulfil 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. |
