Gerua Bharat three phaser with Netaji Exp 🧡

39263 WAP-7i Howrah (HWH) painted in Amrit Bharat gets ready to haul our train 12312/Dn. Kalka - Howrah Netaji Exp (नेताजी एक्सप्रेस), for which we had booked tickets from Chandigarh! So from Kalka we boarded a random Sleeper coach to travel till Chandigarh, as General coaches were packed to brim and people were seated in dark since hours ago.
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some snaps of our 1700+ kms travel onboard the legendary Kalka Mail (कालका मेल)

Pic 1: Train name board
Pic 2: Locomotive
Pic 3: Headlamps switched on
Pic 4: Ready to charge, delayed by 1.5 hours
Pic 5: Our Sleeper coach
Pic 6: Midnight circus at Chandigarh for attaching slip coaches
Pic 7: Time to sleep over my Lower berth
Pic 8: The chaat, cutlets and momos from Prayagraj bought by our friend
Pic 9: My co-traveler and railfan friend Aaryan
Pic 10: That satisfaction on my face after getting tummy filled by snacks

Date: 19th May 2024

#netajiexpress #kalkamail #amritbharatexpress #amritbharat #wap7 #howrah #easternrailway #northernrailway #northcentralrailway #trains #travel #kalka #chandigarh #delhi #mail #shimla #holiday #shimladiaries #kolkata #britishraj #heritage #railfans #desirail #panveltrainspotters #saffron #gerua #railroadphotography #westbengal #pahadi #hobby

People of Azimganj , Nabadwip Dham, Sahibganj , Katwa , Jangipur Road have expressed their sorrow on the route selection of Bhagalpur - Howrah Vande Bharat Express .

It was initially proposed via Nabadwip Dham , Azimganj , Barharwa , Sahibganj as known from a leaked document last year but Nishikant Dubey wanted it to run via Dumka & after that via Dumka was approved by Railway Board.
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The doubling of New Farakka - Bandel section was completed on March 2023 & after that no major increment is observed in this route till now. One premium train should run in this route atleast once a week either towards NJP or towards BGP

2024-25 PB for ER clearly shows ER is a major passenger carrying Zone of IR and getting lots of projects allocation for passenger carrying trains compared to SER, ECOR zones which got budget allocations for Freight trains mostly.
Below major ER passengers trains related projects:
1. Eastern Railway-Upgradation/development of maintenance infrastructure for energy efficient Vande Bharat Sleeper trains asper conditions underWTA 527 (PB#5/NR/Suppl./Dec'2022) (through order No 154 of 2022-23)
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Eastern Railway-Upgradation/ Development of maintenance facilities for other Rolling Stocks (LHB/ICF/MEMU/DEMU/EMU) (PB#63/NR/2023-24)
3. EasternRailway-Upgradation / augmentationof coaching rolling stock (incl DPRS) maintenance facilities in the open line (PB#771/CR/2022-23)
4.Sealdah - Development of coaching maintenance infrastructure
5. Dankuni - Construction of new coaching terminal

Also ER got many Freight trains projects this year PB along with SER, ECOR
1.Eastern Railway-Augmentation of freight maintenance facilities
2. Eastern Railway-Augmentation / Upgradation of Wagon Maintenance infrastructure (PB#1185/NR/2023-24)
3. Eastern Railway-Next Generation Freight Maintenance Yards (PB#1164/NR/2023-24)

Overall a very good and balanced PB projects and allocations for ER with equal importance to Passenger to Freight related projects.
SER & ECOR on the otherhand got mainly Freight related projects with only 1 project related to VB maintainance which is passenger related project.

New line/doubling/stn development projects not considered in this post.