HISTORY OF NAGPUR DIVISION
Geographically Nagpur known as ORANGE CITY OF INDIA, celebrated Tricentenaryyear in 2002.Bakht Buldand, the reigning prince of Deogarhinvited Hindu artificers and husbandmen to settle in the plain country and formed the city of Nagpur.The city stands on a small stream named NAG from which it takes its name.
1.Nagpur-Rajnandgaon is the oldest section of the BNR (S.E.Railway). The first survey for the Railway line linking Nagpur with Raipur was done in 1871. A public sector enterprise" Nagpur-Chattisgarh Railway" was set up, which started the construction work (Meter Gauge) on 9th May 1878. Nagpur-Tumsar Road Section was opened on 6th April 1880. Tumsar Road-Rajnandgaon Section was opened on 16th December 1880. Motibagh Workshop (M.G.) was the main Workshop-cum-Loco Shed and Dongargarh was the other Loco Shed on the system.
1.1Bengal-Nagpur Railway was formed in 1887 with the following three major objectives :
Take over the Nagpur-Chattisgarh Railway (149 miles) from the Government and convert to B.G.
Extend the existing system by 480 miles to meet the East India Railway system at Asansol.
Construct the Branch line from Bilaspur to Umaria for through connection with GIPR system at Katni.
1.2The entire task, which started in April 1887, was completed in 4 years in 1891.Motibagh Workshop and Loco Shed were converted into B.G. later on, with the setting up of Kharagpur Workshop, B.G. activity of Motibagh Workshop was shifted to Kharagpur & with the coming up of N.G. Satpura Railway, Motibagh became a N.G. Workshop.
1.3Nagpur remained the Headquarters of the BNR, till it was shifted to its present location at Garden Reach in 1908.
2.Satpura Railway: BNR signed a contract with Government for the Narrow Gauge Satpura Railway (2’-6”) on 23rd January 1902 for constructing Gondia-Jabalpur, Nainpur-Mandla Fort, Nainpur-Seoni-Chhindwara lines.The sections were opened for the traffic as follows :
Gondia- Nainpur1903
Nainpur-Chhindwara1904
Nainpur-Jabalpur1905
Chhindwara-Pench Coal Fields 1906-07
Nainpur-Mandla Fort1909
3.Southern Grid: Gondia-Chanda Fort and the branch line Nagbhir-Nagpur was sanctioned in 1904, the work started in 1905.Gondia-Nagbhir-Nagpur section was opened to traffic on 9thNovember 1908.Nagbhir-Chanda Fort work was started in 1906 but due to the shortage of funds the work was completed on 1st April 1913.
4.Formation of NagpurDivision-S.E.Railway :The Nagpur division of South Eastern Railway was established in March 1963.Diesel Traction was introduced around this time on the Broad Gauge system and the Narrow Gauge in October 1964.The Electrification of Durg-Nagpur section started with energisation of Durg-Dongargarh section on 4th December 1990 and completed on 30th December 1991.
5.NagpurDivision – S.E.C.Railway : With the formation of nine new zones the Nagpur division has come under the jurisdiction of newly formed South East Central Railway, Bilaspur w.e.f. 1.4.2003.Nagpurdivision of SECR faills in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh.It covers 5 districts of Maharashtra viz. Nagpur, Gondia, Bhandara, Chadrapur, Gadchiroli, 5 Districts of Madhya Pradesh viz. Chhindwara, Seoni, Mandla, Balaghat, Jabalpurand 2 Districts of Chattisgarh viz. Rajnandgaon and Durg.
6.Gauge Conversion :
6.1“ The back waters” region served by narrow Gauge has joined with main stream with main stream with conversion of Gondia-Chanda Fort section into Broad Gauge.
6.2Gauge conversion work for Gondia-Chanda Fort (Narrow Gauge – 240 Kms.) started in December 1992.In the first phase Gondia-Wadsa Broad Gauge of 104 kms. was inaugurated on 25.9.1994.In second phase, Wadsa-Nagbhir section of 27.9 Kms. which was closed for Gauge conversion work from 1.7.1995, has been opened on 20th February 1997.Nagbhir-Chanda Fort converted Broad Gauge line was opened on 13thJanuary, 1999 and Chandafort-Ballarshah section has been operated by Central Railway from 2nd July 1999.
6.3The Gondia-Balaghat section N.G. section which was closed from January 2003 for gauge conversion was opened for traffic after conversion into BG on 6thSeptember 2005 by Shri Naranbhai Rathwa, Hon’ble MOSR.
6.4The survey for conversion of Nagpur-Chhindwara section (149 Kms.) was launched by Hon’ble MR at Nagpuron 10.11.1997.The foundation stone was laid for Gauge conversion between Chhindwara-Nagpurby Shri Lalu Prasad, Hon’ble Minister of Railways on 14th May 2005.
6.5The Gondia-Jabalpur gauge conversion project is an approved project on the division.With the completion of this project, an alternative North-South corridor connecting Jabalpur with the South India via Nagpur-Ballarshah to Chennai shall be available having a route length lesser by about 250 KM.The main advantage of Gauge Conversion between Gondia-Ballarshah shall be realized after conversion of Jabalpur-Gondia section.The salient features of the project are
7.“Narrow GaugeRail Museum” was established at Nagpurand was inaugurated by Shri Nitish Kumar, Hon’ble Minister for Railways on 14thDecember 2002.The Museum acquired the status at par with National Rail Museum, New Delhi. Another feather to this Museum was added by introducing a ‘Toy Train” on 3rd April 2005.
Overview
The Nagpur Division which was established in March 1963 , has come under the jurisdiction of newly formed South East Central Railway , Bilaspur from 1.4.2003. on the east , the division connects to Durgon Raipur division of SEC Railway . on the western side it connects to Nagpur division of Central Railway at Ballarsha by the recently converted Gondia – Chandafort – Ballarsha line. The BG line falling on Howrah – Mumbai electrified ‘A’ route has two branch lines i.e Tumsar – Tirodi and Kanhan – Ramtek.The Gondia – Balaghat section of about 40 kilometers length is under gauge conversion. The division has an extensive NG network with route length of 669.5 KM.
The division is geographically spread over the state of Maharashtra , Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh over thirteen districts. It has 51 stations on BG and 40 stations on NG. Forty pairs of coaching trains on BG and 20 pairs of train on NG are run over the division.
Nagpur division transports various commodities like Coal , steel , Food Grains , Sugar , POL , Salt , Cement , Manganese Ore , Bamboo cuts , Fertilizers etc. It serves various important industries like Koradih Thermal Power Station , Khaperkheda Thermal Power Station . MOIL , Western CoalFields Ltd , SunFlag Iron & Steel Co, SAIL , TISCO ,Khandelwal Ferro Alloys etc.
