Kharagpur Railway Junction (Kharagpur)

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It is the busiest junction station in South Eastern Railway Zone after Howrah. Hence, it is termed as Gateway to South Eastern Railway. It is a junction which connects Howrah to Mumbai, Chennai, Adra/Purulia and New Delhi via Tatanagar as well. It also connects Bhubaneshwar to New Delhi. Everyday approximately 275 trains pass through this station which includes freight traffic. In terms of passenger traffic it handles 176 trains on a daily basis. So, in a bid to decongest Kharagpur station and speed up locomotives, South Eastern Railway has decided to develop Hijli (close to IIT-Kharagpur) as an alternative station for Kharagpur. In future, most of the new trains coming from Balasore side and going towards Adra or Tatanagar will stop at Hijli and bypass Kharagpur. In order to increase passenger commute between Kharagpur and Hijli, new EMU services have been introduced between these two stations.

The Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line is classified under Route A of Indian Railways which allows trains to run at maximum permissible speed of 160 km/hr. However, as a result of the automated block section between Howrah and Kharagpur, the speed is restricted to 120 km/hr. The Howrah-Kharagpur section has been identified as one of the high density Automatic Block Section routes on Indian Railways. Thus plans are to deploy TPWS (Train Protection and Warning System) on this section to mitigate the risk of Signal passed at danger (SPAD) by train drivers leading to accidents.

It has also been identified as one of the Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) - on the East-West : Howrah-Mumbai via Kharagpur-Bilaspur-Nagpur, and on the East-Coast : Kharagpur-Vijayawada via Khurda Road-Duvvada. These routes would be operational well before 2020. This would create adequate capacity to meet the freight demand and also elevate the quality of service to global standards.

Due to increasing number of trains on Howrah - Kharagpur section, construction of a third line from Panskura to Kharagpur has been initiated. Upon completion of this project, the traffic on this section may be eased to some extent (Howrah - Panskura section has already 3 lines).

Due to passenger demand, new Ladies Special EMU service has been introduced between Howrah - Kharagpur. Plans are also to introduce more new suburban trains between Howrah-Narayangarh (towards Balasore) and Howrah-Ghatsila (towards Tatanagar).

The below is a list of some of the Important Trains that Pass through Kharagpur Junction:-

TOWARDS TATANAGAR / MUMBAI

Howrah - Mumbai Geetanjali Express
Howrah - Pune Azad Hind Express
Howrah - Mumbai CSTM Express
Howrah - Sai Nagar Shirdi Express
Howrah - Ahmedabad Express
Howrah - Porbander - Okha Express
Howrah - Lokmanya Tilak (T) Jnaneshwari Express
Howrah - Lokmanya Tilak (T) Samarsata Express (via KGP-ADRA-CKP)
Howrah - Mumbai Mail (via Nagpur)
Howrah - Sambalpur Samaleshwari Express
Howrah - Titlagarh Ispat Express
Howrah - Tatanagar Steel Express
Howrah - Barbil Janshatabdi Express
Howrah - Jagadalpur Express
Santragachi - Porbander Kaviguru Express
Santragachi - Ajmer Express
Santragachi - Hazur Saheb Nanded Express
Shalimar - Bhuj Weekly SF Express
Shalimar - Udaipur Express
Shalimar - Lokmanya Tilak (T) Express
Kamakhya - Lokmanya Tilak (T) Karmahoomi Express
Kharagpur - Jhargram Express
TOWARDS BHUBANESHWAR / CHENNAI / SECUNDERABAD / BANGALORE

Howrah - Chennai Central Coromandel Express
Howrah - Chennai Central Mail
Howrah - Tiruchirapalli Express
Howrah - Kanniyakumari Express
Howrah - Secunderabad Falaknuma Express
Howrah - Bhubaneshwar Jan Shatabdi Express
Howrah - Puri Dhauli Express
Howrah - Puri Express
Howrah - Puri Garib Rath Express
Howrah - Puri Sri Jagannath Express
Howrah - Yesvantpur Express
Howrah - Mysore Express
Howrah - Vasco Da Gama Express
Howrah - Puducherry Express
Howrah - Hyderabad East Coast Express
Howrah - Sri Satya Sai Prasanthi Nilayam Express
Howrah - Sambalpur Express (via Bhadrak)
Santragachi - Mangalore Vivek Express
Santragachi - Tirupati Express
Shalimar - Thiruvananthapuram Express
Shalimar - Nagercoil Gurudev Express
Shalimar - Visakhapatnam Express
Shalimar - Baripada Express
Shalimar - Chennai Central Express
Shalimar - Puri Express
Shalimar - Secunderabad Express
Shalimar - Secunderabad AC Superfast Express
Haldia - Chennai Central Express
Digha - Visakhapatnam Express
Digha - Puri Express
Purulia - Villupuram
Kharagpur - Villupuram Express
Bhagalpur - Yesvantpur Express Anga Express
Santragachi - Chennai Central A.C Express
TOWARDS PURULIA / DELHI / PATNA

Howrah - Purulia Rupashi Bangla Express
Howrah - Purulia Lalmati Express
Howrah - Purulia Express
Shalimar - Bhojudih Aranyak Express
Shalimar - Bankura Rajya Rani Express
Haldia - Asansol Express
Digha - Asansol Express
Haldia - Anand Vihar (T) Express
Kharagpur - Purulia Express
Bhubaneshwar - New Delhi Rajdhani Express (via Adra)
Bhubaneshwar - New Delhi Rajdhani Express (via Tatanagar)
Bhubaneshwar - New Delhi Sampark Kranthi Express
Puri - New Delhi Purushottam Express
Puri - New Delhi Neelachal Express (via Tatanagar)
Puri - New Delhi Nandankanan Express (via Adra)
Puri - Patna Baidyanathdham Express
Puri - Gorakhpur Bhojpuri Express
Puri - Darbhanga Express
Puri - Haridwar Kalinga Utkal Express
Ernakulam - Patna Express
Villupuram - Purulia Express (via Hijli)
TOWARDS GUWAHATI

Thiruvananthapuram - Guwahati Express
Bangalore City Jn. - Guwahati Express
Ernakulam Town - Guwahati Express
Puri - Guwahati Express
Chennai Egmore - Guwahati Express
Secunderabad Jn - Guwahati Express
Kannniyakumari - Dibrugarh Town Vivek Express
Chennai Egmore - Dibrugarh Town Express
Yesvantpur - Dibrugarh Express
Digha - Malda Town Express
Chennnai Central - New Jalpaiguri Express
Yesvantpur - Muzaffarpur Express
Puri - Kamakhya Express (Guwahati)
LIST OF DURONTO TRAINS BEING HANDLED:-

Howrah - Mumbai CSTM Duronto Express AC Express
Howrah - Pune Duronto Express AC Express
Howrah - Puri Duronto Express AC Express
Howrah - Yesvantpur Duronto Express
Sealdah - Puri Duronto Express
Bhubaneshwar - New Delhi Duronto Express (via Hijli-Adra-Gomoh)
Apart from these there are currently 30 pairs of EMU/MEMU trains that ply between Howrah Jn. and Kharagpur Jn. In addition to these, there are 15 pairs of passenger trains either pass through or terminate (at) Kharagpur. The average total of passenger trains that pass through Kharagpur is 176 per day.

Kharagpur Junction has total 10 platforms.

Platforms - 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 serve Mail/Express trains. Platforms - 1A,2A,3A,4A serve EMU/MEMU/Passenger trains.

2new platforms are under construction - Platform 7 & 8. Once functional the number of platforms at Kharagpur will be 12.