Kharagpur is a university town of 200,000 people located in the Midnapore West District of the State of West Bengal.
On 16th September 1931, freedom fighters in Hijli Jail were rejoicing the killing of Sessions Judge Mr Garley, who had passed death penalty to the famous freedom fighter Shri Dinesh Gupta. The jail authorities could not bear this and killed the freedom fighters in their cell. Today the infamous Hijli Jail is located inside the IIT campus area. Not to forget that The Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, also served his term in the Hijli Jail along with Khudiram Bose, one of the eminent freedom fighters of Bengal.
The first railway establishment at Kharagpur started with the commissioning of the rail link between Cuttack – Balasore - Kharagpur and from Sini to Kolaghat via Kharagpur. Kharagpur, as a junction station, was established in the railway map in December of 1898. It is said that the people were initially afraid to travel by train for fear of an accident over the bridge (fear of collapsing of bridge), fear of getting outcaste since there were no separate seating arrangements for different castes and religions. However, things changed in the face of famine during the early 20th century. The Railway Company came forward and offered jobs to the local unemployed men, gave them free train rides and even offered blankets for traveling by train. This promotional scheme broke the jinx and made rail transport acceptable to the society. Innovative marketing strategy!
Midnapur, the District Headquarters got connected (up to the bank of Kosai river) in February 1900. Construction of a bridge over Kosai was completed in June 1901. The rail line from Howrah to Kolaghat up to the eastern bank and from Kharagpur up to western bank of Rupnarayan river was completed in 1899. However, running of trains between Howrah and Kharagpur could only be possible in April 1900 after the bridge over Rupnarayan river was completed.
Howrah – Amta light railway (2 ft gauge) line was completed in 1898 and was operated by Martin & Co. of Calcutta. This link remained operative till 1971. After closure of the light railways, demand for a broad gauge line between Howrah and Amta creeped up. The project was completed in four phases. In the first phase, a line between Santragachi and Domjur was completed in 1984. In the 2nd phase it was extended up to Bargachia in 1985. Extension up to Mushirhat (Mahendralal Nagar station) was completed in 2000 and the final lap up to Amta was completed in December 2004.
The need for rail link between Panskura and Tamluk was conceived at the beginning of the 20th century, almost at the same time when the rail link between Howrah and Kharagpur was opened. The Railway Company received offers for construction from two Agencies, Martin & Company and Babu Nibaran Chandra Dutta. The former against guaranteed return of 3.5% while the latter without any guarantees. Although the offer of the latter was lucrative, the dilemma of whether to offer the work of construction to a native forced the project to be abandoned. After Independence, the requirement of rail link connecting Panskura and Durgachak came up primarily for the purpose of constructing Haldia Port. The rail link between Panskura – Durgachak via Tamluk was completed in 1968, which was later extended to Haldia in 1975. Extension of rail link to Digha from Tamluk was sanctioned in 1984 and it took 20 years to complete this project in two phases, the first phase of linking Tamluk and Kanthi completed in November 2003 and the tourist destination Digha got connected to Howrah/Shalimar in December 2004.
Geographical location of Kharagpur and its rail links with the rest of the country favored construction of centralized workshop with facilities to carry out major repairs of all broad gauge stock. In 1900, the work was sanctioned and the construction of the workshop completed in 1904.
Kharagpur railway station has the longest platform in the world. It is 3,517 feet long or more than a km long. It is the most important station of the South Eastern Railway.
Indian Institute of Technology- Kharagpur, the oldest among the IITs, was formally inaugurated on August 18, 1951 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Kharagpur was chosen as the location of the first campus of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology. The IITs are the premier technical educational institutes in India and are internationally recognized for their academic and technical excellence. Unlike otherIndian Institute of Technologies, IIT Kharagpur has been long known for its ability to offer unusual courses not offered in other IITs.
