History
of Firozpur Division is almost as old as that of the
Indian Railways. The first railway line of the area,
from Amritsar to Attari, was opened in April, 1862.
The division with a route km of 1440.39 including 163.99
km of Narrow Gauge and 242 stations caters to the rail
transportation needs of Punjab, Jammu Kashmir &
a part of Himachal Pradesh. The division serves a large
no. of industrial and important towns like Ludhiana,
Amritsar, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Firozpur, Kapurthala
in Punjab and Kangra, Palampur, Baijnath Paprola and
Joginder Nagar in Himachal Pradesh. Jammu Tawi and Udhampur
are important stations on the division, which act as
a gateway to large number of tourists and pilgrims visiting
scenic Kashmir valley and the holy Shrine of Vaishnodevi.
The Division is the
largest food-grain loading division in the Indian Railway.
Nearly 1502 wagons of food-grain, Petroleum product
machinery and components are loaded every day on the
division. The inward traffic consists mainly of iron,
steel, fertilizer, coal, cement, and petroleum product.
There are two Inland Container Depots at Dhandari Kalan
& Phillaur on the division. While Dhandari Kalan
depot caters to international container for movement
of export traffic, Phillaur is basically dealing with
domestic traffic.
In addition to 190
passengers services which are run with DMU rake, conventional
rakes and rail bus, 126 nos. Mail/express trains are
run by the division every day. Passenger earning of
the division is of the order of Rs. 817.36 crore per
annum and about Rs. 1060 crore are earned from the freight
traffic. The annual expenditure is about Rs. 683 crore
and thus the division has achieved a financial index
of 0.37.
About 3.44
lacs of passengers are being dealt with at different
stations and passengers’ amenities have been enhanced
to a great extent on all the important stations of the
division. Platform shelters have been extended, additional
toilets and chairs have been added. Nine stations are
being developed as model stations. |
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