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50 Most Important Latest GK Facts | Current Affairs

1. Indian Railways is the fourth largest railway network in the world after USA , China , Russia. USA > China > Russia >

2. India's first passenger train ran for 34 kilometres between Bori Bunder, and Thane on 16 April 1853. It was dedicated by Lord Dalhousie (Governor-General)

3. The Red Hill Railway, the country's first train, ran from Red Hills to Chintadripet bridge in Madras in 1837.

4. On 3 February 1925, the first electric passenger train in India ran between Victoria Terminus (VT) and Kurla in Mumbai.

5. India's first metro train ran from Esplanade to Bhowanipur in Calcutta on 24 October 1984.

6. The , India's fastest train, was introduced between New and Jhansi in 1988.

7. The Shatabdi Express : to commemorate the birth centenary of Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. 8. , India's fastest train with a maximum speed of 160 km/h, made its maiden journey from Delhi to Agra on 5 April 2016. It runs between New Delhi to Jhansi.

9. On 31 March 2017, IR announced that India's entire rail network would be electrified by 2022.

10. Thirty eight percent of the routes are electrified with 25 KV AC electric traction while thirty-three percent of them are double or multi-tracked as of 2017.

11. Indian Railways is headed by a seven-member Railway Board whose chairman reports to the Ministry of Railways.

12. Present chairman of Railway board : Sh. Ashwini Lohani

13. Present Railway Minister : Sh. Piyush Goyal

14. 1st railway minister of Independent India : Sh. John Mathai 15. Sh. Lal Bahadur Shastri served as Railway Minister and Prime Minister of India.

16. Indian Railways divides its operations into zones, which are further sub-divided into divisions, each having a divisional headquarters. Each of the divisions is headed by a Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), who reports to the General Manager (GM) of the zone.

17. Divided into 17 zones basically . 16 zones for railways & rail.

18. National Rail Museum : New Delhi

19. More than 1.3 million employees are serving.

20. Gorakhpur has longest railway platform.

21. Rail Bridge is a rail connecting and in , . With a total length of 4,620 metres, it is the longest railway bridge in India. The line is dedicated solely for freight. 22. Manufacturing Units

• Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) has been named after the great freedom fighter, leader and statesmen Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das. The initial product of Chittaranjan Locomotive Works was Steam Locomotive . Presently - Electric locomotives of different types . In Chittranjan, W.Bengal . Oldest Unit. • Central Organisation for Railway Electrification (CORE) was set up in 1979 under the Ministry of Railways, at Allahabad. The responsibility entrusted was to carryout railway electrification over the entire network of Indian Railways. • Deisel locomotive Works – Varanasi • The is one of the earliest production units of independent India. production of fully furnished coaches. • Modern Coach factory , Raebareli : Manufacture of State of the Art Railway Coaches • , Bangalore : Production Unit for manufacture of rolling stock wheels and axles as import substitute. • Rail Wheel Plant : Bela, Bihar 23. UNESCO World Heritage Sites on Indian Railways

• Darjeeling Himalayan Railways (DHR) - inscribed by UNESCO in 1999 . Connects New Jalpaiguri with Darjeeling • Nilgiri Mountain Railways (NMR) – inscribed in 2005 • Kalka Shimla Railway (KSR) – inscribed in 2008 • Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai (CSTM) – inscribed in 2004

24. The Jammu–Baramulla line is a railway line being constructed to connect the Kashmir Valley in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the country. It will link the state's winter capital, Jammu, with the summer capital, Srinagar, and beyond. 25. On long distance routes and also on some shorter routes, IR uses 2 primary types of coach design types. • ICF coaches: in production from 1955, they constitute the bulk of the current stock. These coaches, considered to be having inadequate safety features, are slowly being phased out. • LHB coaches.: Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches are the passenger coaches of Indian Railways that have been developed by Linke-Hofmann-Busch of Germany. mostly produced by Rail Coach Factory in Kapurthala, India.

26. On regional short distance routes, IR runs Mainline Electrical Multiple Unit (MEMU) or Diesel Electrical Multiple Unit (DEMU) trains, depending on the traction available.

27. On suburban commuter routes around the large urban centers , IR runs trains with Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) coaches.

28. As of March 2017, IR network spans 121,407 km (75,439 mi) of track length, while the route length is 67,368 km (41,861 mi). 29. Types of Tracks :

• Broad Guage : A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge broader than 1 the 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ⁄2 in) standard-gauge railways. is the predominant gauge used by IR and spans 61,680 km (38,330 mi) of route (92% of total route network). It is the broadest gauge in use across the world for passenger movement. 3 • Metre gauge : The 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 ⁄8 in) metre gauge tracks. • Narrow gauge : 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) and 610 mm (2 ft).

30. India uses 25 kV AC electricity system traction on all its electrified tracks.

31. IR uses a range of signalling technologies and methods to manage its train operations based on traffic density and safety requirements. IR primarily uses coloured signal lights. 32. Rail links between India and neighboring countries are not well developed. Two trains operate to : the between Delhi and , and the between and .

33. Bangladesh is connected by the biweekly that runs from Kolkata to Dhaka and which began running commercial trips between Kolkata and Khulna in November 2017.

34. Two rail links to Nepal exist: passenger service between Jaynagar and Bijalpura and freight services between Raxaul and Birganj .

35. : A semi-high-speed, air-conditioned train which had its inaugural run on 24 May 2017, Coaches have bio-vacuum toilets, water-level indicators, tap sensors, hand dryers, integrated Braille displays, an LED TV for each passenger with a phone jack, local cuisine, Wi-Fi, tea and coffee vending machines, magazines, snack tables, CCTV cameras and a fire and smoke detection and extinguishing system. 36. Gatimaan Express :The first semi-high-speed, air-conditioned train running between Delhi and Jhansi. With a speed of 160 km/h (99 mph)

37. Introduced to provide air-conditioned travel to young Indians, 60 percent of its seats were reserved for passengers between 18 and 45 years of age. The trains were unsuccessful, and operate only on the Delhi-Howrah and Delhi-Mumbai routes.

38. Introduced in honor of .

39. Non-reserved, high-speed LHB coaches on peak routes to ease congestion.

40. The is a luxury-train service, frequently hauled by a steam locomotive, to promote tourism in .

41. The covers tourist destinations in Maharashtra and Goa. 42. The , an air-conditioned service also known as the Buddhist Circuit Train, is run by the IRCTC for Buddhist pilgrims.

43. Introduced to commemorate the 150th birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda in 2013, four pairs of Vivek Expresses run in the country.

44. Passenger Name Record (PNR) is a record in the database of a computer reservation system (CRS) that consists of the personal information for a passenger and also contains the itinerary for the passenger, or a group of passengers travelling together.

45. Reservation against Cancellation tickets, between the waiting and confirmed lists, allow a ticket holder to board the train and obtain a seat chosen by a ticket collector after the collector has found a vacant seat.

46. Corporation Limited (KRCL) is a subsidiary of the Indian Railways (IR). It operates the Konkan Railways, a subsidiary zone of the Indian Railways. 47. RORO means Roll-on/roll-off, where loaded trucks are directly carried by railway wagons to their destination. RORO concept is very common for water transport.

48. The Konkan Railway Corporation came with concept of RORO, where loaded trucks are moved on wagons and are travelled by train. This has helped in saving of fuels, decrease in wear and tear of lorries (trucks), relief to drivers of driving in extreme conditions, can reach faster to destination.

49. Katni in Madhya Pradesh will have India's longest railway bridge, 14 km on the up line, almost three and half times longer than Vembanad rail bridge in Kerala that connects Edappally and Vallarpadam in Kochi and is 4.62 km long.

50. The Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) is an Autonomous Organization under the Ministry of Railways. It develops and manages the Information Technology applications of the Indian Railways.