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ZONES AND DIVISION
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Monday, December 7, 2015
Mountain Railways of India
This site includes three
railways. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway was the first, and is
still the most outstanding, example of a hill passenger railway. Opened in
1881, its design applies bold and ingenious engineering solutions to the
problem of establishing an effective rail link across a mountainous terrain of
great beauty. The construction of the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, a
46-km long metre-gauge single-track railway in Tamil Nadu State was first
proposed in 1854, but due to the difficulty of the mountainous location the
work only started in 1891 and was completed in 1908. This railway, scaling an
elevation of 326 m to 2,203 m, represented the latest technology of the time. The
Kalka Shimla Railway, a 96-km long, single track working rail link built
in the mid-19th century to provide a service to the highland town of Shimla is
emblematic of the technical and material efforts to disenclave mountain
populations through the railway. All three railways are still fully
operational.
HISTORY OF RAIL TRANSPORT IN INDIA
The history of rail
transport in India began in the mid-nineteenth century.
Prior to 1850, there were
no railway lines in the country. This changed with the first railway in 1853.
Railways were gradually developed, for a short while by the British East India
Company and subsequently by the Colonial British Government, primarily to
transport troops for their numerous wars, and secondly to transport cotton for
export to mills in UK. Transport of Indian passengers received little interest
till 1947 when India got freedom and started to develop railways in a more
judicious manner.
By 1929, there were 66,000
km (41,000 mi) of railway lines serving most of the districts in the country.
At that point of time, the railways represented a capital value of some £687
million, and carried over 620 million passengers and approximately 90 million
tons of goods a year. The railways in India were a group of privately owned
companies, mostly with British shareholders and whose profits invariably
returned to Britain. The military engineers of the East India Company, later of
the British Indian Army, contributed to the birth and growth of the railways
which gradually became the responsibility of civilian technocrats and
engineers. However, construction and operation of rail transportation in the
North West Frontier Province and in foreign nations during war or for military
purposes was the responsibility of the military engineers.
Electrification
In 1904, the idea to
electrify the railway network was proposed by W.H White, chief engineer of the
then Bombay Presidency government. He proposed the electrification of the two
Bombay-based companies, the Great Indian Peninsula Railway and the Bombay
Baroda and Central India Railway (now known as CR and WR respectively).
Both the companies were in
favour of the proposal. However, it took another year to obtain necessary
permissions from the British government and to upgrade the railway
infrastructure in Bombay city. The government of India appointed Mr Merz as a
consultant to give an opinion on the electrification of railways. But Mr Merz
resigned before making any concrete suggestions, except the replacement of the
first Vasai bridge on the BB&CI by a stronger one.
Moreover, as the project
was in the process of being executed, the First World War broke out and put the
brakes on the project. The First World War placed heavy strain on the railway
infrastructure in India. Railway production in the country was diverted to meet
the needs of British forces outside India. By the end of the war, Indian
Railways were in a state of dilapidation and disrepair.
By 1920, Mr Merz formed a
consultancy firm of his own with a partner, Mr Maclellan. The government
retained his firm for the railway electrification project. Plans were drawn up
for rolling stock and electric infrastructure for Bombay-Poona/Igatpuri/Vasai
and Madras Tambaram routes.
The secretary of state of
India sanctioned these schemes in October 1920. All the inputs for the
electrification, except power supply, were imported from various companies in
England.
And similar to the running
of the first ever railway train from Bombay to Thane on April 16, 1853, the
first-ever electric train in India also ran from Bombay. The debut journey,
however, was a shorter one. The first electric train ran between Bombay
(Victoria Terminus) and Kurla, a distance of 16 km, on February 3, 1925 along
the city’s harbour route.
The section was electrified
on a 1,500 volts DC. The opening ceremony was performed by Sir Leslie Wilson,
the governor of Bombay, at Victoria Terminus station in presence of a very
large and distinguished gathering.
India's first electric
locos (two of them), however, had already made their appearance on the Indian
soil much earlier. They were delivered to the Mysore Gold Fields by Bagnalls
(Stafford) with overhead electrical equipment by Siemens as early as 1910.
Various sections on the
railway network were progressively electrified and commissioned between 1925 to
1930.
In 1956, the government
decided to adopt 25kV AC single-phase traction as a standard for the Indian
Railways to meet the challenge of the growing traffic. An organisation called
the Main Line Electrification Project, which later became the Railway
Electrification Project and still later the Central Organisation for Railway
Electrification, was established. The first 25kV AC traction section in India
is Burdwan-Mughalsarai via the Grand Chord.
INDIAN RAILWAY AT A GLANCE
Indian Railways is
an Indian state-owned enterprise, owned and operated
by the Government
of India through
the Ministry
of Railways. It is one of the world's largest railway
networks comprising 115,000 km (71,000 mi) of track over a route of
65,808 km (40,891 mi) and 7,112 stations. In 2014-15, IR carried 8.397 billion
passengers annually or more than 23 million passengers a day (roughly half of
whom were suburban passengers) and 1058.81 million tons of freight in the year.
In 2014–2015 Indian
Railways had revenues of ₹1634.50
billion (US$25 billion)
which consists of ₹1069.27
billion (US$16 billion)
from freight and ₹402.80
billion (US$6.1 billion)
from passengers tickets.
Railways were first introduced to India in
the year 1853 from Mumbai to Thane. In 1951 the systems were nationalised as
one unit, the Indian Railways, becoming one of the largest networks in the
world. IR operates both long
distance and suburban
rail systems on a multi-gauge network of broad, metre and narrow gauges. It
also owns locomotive and coach production facilities
at several places in India and are assigned codes identifying their gauge, kind
of power and type of operation. Its operations cover twenty
nine states and seven union territories and also provides
limited international services to Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Indian Railways is the world's seventh
largest commercial or utility employer, by number of employees, with over 1.334
million employees as of last published figures in 2013 . As for rolling stock, IR
holds over 245,267 Freight
Wagons, 66,392 Passenger
Coaches and
10,499 Locomotives (43 steam, 5,633 diesel
and 4,823 electric locomotives). The
trains have a 5 digit numbering system and runs 12,617 passenger trains and
7421 freight trains daily. As of
31 March 2013, 21,614 km (13,430 mi) (32.8%) of the total
65,808 km (40,891 mi) route length was electrified. Since 1960, almost all electrified
sections on IR use 25,000 Volt AC traction through overhead catenary delivery.
UNESCO world heritage
sites
There are two UNESCO World
Heritage Sites on Indian Railways –
·
The Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus and the Mountain
Railways of India. The latter consists of three separate railway lines located
in different parts of India.
Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, a narrow
gauge railway in West Bengal.
Nilgiri Mountain Railway, a
1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) metre gauge railway in the Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu.
Kalka-Shimla Railway, a narrow gauge
railway in the Shivalik mountains in Himachal Pradesh. In 2003 the railway was
featured in the Guinness Book of World Records for offering the steepest rise
in altitude in the space of 96 kilometer.
Links to adjacent
countries
Existing rail links:
Nepal – Break-of-gauge – Gauge
conversion under uni-gauge project
Pakistan – same Broad Gauge. Thar
Express to Karachi and the more famous Samjhauta Express international train
from Lahore, Pakistan to Amritsar (Attari).
Bangladesh – Same Broad Gauge.
The Maitri Express between Dhaka and Kolkata started in April 2008 using the
Gede-Darsana route, in addition to a Freight Train service from Singhabad and
Petrapole in India to Rohanpur and Benapole in Bangladesh. A second passenger
link between Agartala, India and Akhaura Upazila, Bangladesh was approved by
the Government of Bangladesh and India in September 2011.
Under construction /
Proposed links:
Bhutan – railways under
construction – Same gauge
Myanmar – Manipur to Myanmar
(under construction)
Vietnam – On 9 April 2010, Former
Union Minister of India, Shashi Tharoor announced that the central government
is considering a rail link from Manipur to Vietnam via Myanmar.
Thailand – possible if Burma
Railway is rebuilt.
MEMORY MEASUREMENT
1 Byte = 8 Bits
1 Byte
=2 Nibble
1 KB(Kilo Byte)
=1024 Bytes
1 MB(Mega Byte) =1024KB
1 GB(Giga Byte)
= 1024 MB
1 TB(Tera Byte)
=1024 GB
1 PB(Peta Byte)
=1024TB
1 EB(Exa Byte)
=1024 PB
1 ZB(Zetta Byte)
=1024 EB
1 YB(Yotta Byte
=1024 ZB)
1 Bronto Byte
=1024 YB
1 Geop Byte
=1024 Bronto Byte
Bit is the smallest memory measurement unit.
Geop Byte is the highest memory measurement unit.
Components of a Computer
1.
Input/output
(I/O) Unit : - a) Input Unit-It is a device that
is used to give required
information to the computer.e.g. Keyboard, mouse, etc.
b) Output Unit- It is mainly used to display the desired
result to the user as per input instruction. e.g. Video monitor, printer and
plotter, etc
.
2.
Central
Processing Unit (CPU): -It
is a set of registers, arithmetic and control circuits, which together
interpret and execute instructions and assembly language.
·
The
CPU executes the instructions in the stored sequence.
·
The
CPU transfer instructions and input data from main memory to registers i.e. internal
memory.
·
When
necessary, CPU transfers output data from registers to main memory.
The CPU consists
of three main subsystems: - Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU), Control Unit (CU) and
registers.
Arithmetic
Logic Unit (ALU)- It
is used to perform all arithmetic calculation and logical calculation. Logical
unit performs comparison of numbers, letters and special characters. ALU uses
registers to hold the data that is being processed.
Registers- Registers are special purpose and high speed
temporary memory units. Registers are not referenced by their address, but are
directly accessed and manipulated by the information that the CPU during
execution. Register store data, instructions, address and intermediate results
of processing.
Control
Unit (CU)- Control
unit organizes the processing of data and instructions. It directs the computer
to carry out stored program instructions by communicating with the ALU and the
registers. The basic function of control unit is to fetch the instruction
stored in the main memory, identify the operations and the devices involved in
it accordingly generate control signals.
3. Memory Unit: - The
memory unit consists of (a) primary memory and (b) secondary memory
a):- Primary
Memory-Primary memory of the
computer is used to store the data and instructions during execution of the
instructions. The primary memory is of two types;
I.
Random
Access Memory (RAM).
II.
Read
Only Memory (ROM).
I.
Random
Access Memory (RAM)-It
directly provides the required information to the processor .It is a volatile
memory. It provides temporary storage for data and instructions. RAM is
classified in two categories .
·
Static
Random Access Memory (SRAM).
·
Dynamic
Random Access Memory (DRAM).
II.
Read
Only Memory (ROM)-It
is used for storing standard processing program that permanently
reside in the
computer. Generally, designers program ROM chips at the time of manufacturing
circuits. ROM is non-volatile memory. It can only be read not
written. It is classified into three
categories
·
Electrically
Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM)
·
Erasable
Programmable ROM(EPROM)
·
Programmable
ROM(PROM).
b):-Secondary memory-The
secondary memory stores main larger amounts of data and information
for extended
periods of time. It is non-volatile in nature. It is a permanent storage
device. Some
example of secondary memory device is -1.Magnetic Disks, 2.Optical Disks, 3.Solid
State Disks
1.Magnetic Disks- (a) Hard Disk Drive, (b) Floppy Disk
(c) Memory Stick
.
2. Optical Disks- (a) CD, (b) DVD and (c) Blue-ray Disk.
3.Solid State Disks- Pen/Flash Drive.
Secondary Memory Device and their
Storage Method and Capacity
Secondary
Memory Device
|
Storage
Method
|
Capacity
|
Floppy
Disk(5.25 inch)
|
Magnetic
|
1.2
MB
|
Floppy
Disk(3.5 inch)
|
Magnetic
|
1.44
MB
|
Floppy
Disk(8 inch)
|
Magnetic
|
80-242
KB
|
Magnetic
Tape
|
Magnetic
|
Upto
1 TB
|
Hard
Disk
|
Magnetic
|
Upto
1 TB
|
CD-ROM
|
Optical
|
640-680
MB
|
DVD-ROM
|
Optical
|
4.7
-17 GB
|
Pen-Drive
|
Solid
State
|
1 –
512 GB
|
