Kolkata: Gorakhpur, a small city on the eastern fringes of Uttar Pradesh bordering the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal, now boasts the longest railway platform in the world.
According to World Record Academy, the station now has a platform measuring 1,366.33 meters with ramp and 1,1355.40 meters without it, breaking the Guinness record of 1,074 meters set by the platform at Kharagpur Station, West Bengal, India, thereby setting a new world record.
Gorakhpur railway station is a major railway junction. It is the headquarters of Northern Eastern Railways (NER) and was formed in 1952 by combining two railway systems. NER has a 3,402.46km route network, with 486 stations. NER primarily serves the areas of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarkhand and western districts of Bihar.
K.K. Atal, General Manager, North Eastern Railway, told Gulf News over the phone, “I congratulate the people of Gorakhpur on getting the privilege of world’s longest railway platform in the city.
“We also appreciate the cooperation of the people of Gorakhpur as more than half of the work was completed within 11 days.
“I also appreciate the dedication of rail employees and officers who worked day and night for to ensure completion of work within the time limit.”
On the occasion, the GM announced award of Rs100,000 (Dh6,000) each for the construction department, signal construction department and Lucknow division and an award of Rs50,000 for the headquarters.
Indian Railways has one of the world’s largest railway networks, comprising 115,000 km of track over a route of 65,000 km and 7,500 stations.
As of December 2012, it transported over 25 million passengers daily (over nine billion on an annual basis). In 2011, IR carried over 8,900 million passengers’ annually or more than 24 million passengers daily (roughly half of which were suburban passengers) and 2.8 million tons of freight daily.
