India's Largest Railway Complex: Howrah Junction | Mega Stations | FD Engineering

[Music] they are the world's great Railway stations the biggest and the busiest thin and steel is not a good option you're gonna get knocked down there's thousands of people it's peak time so there's literally thousands of people epic gateways to a city and Beyond as soon as they come into this space I always thought this stop calcutters howrah terminal the busiest station in India with its staggering morning Russia [Applause] and where star face a 24 7 struggle to keep a million daily passengers on the move and a thousand daily trains on track 1003 number train is coming to chapter number 12. [Music] it's a bustling morning at Hara station Calcutta it's the busiest terminal on India's 40 000 Mile Rail Network control room today is operations manager Diana Barlow at Corner Station we deal with around a million commuters on a daily basis the trains are crammed full some people are hanging out of it some people are squeezing into it with children old people women [Applause] [Music] a very squeezy and Squishy kind of situations in between and they've gotten used to it Calcutta is situated on the banks of the Ganges and was once the capital of the British Raj today it's the capital of West Bengal one of India's most popular states and the epicenter of one of the fastest growing urban areas on the planet and it's herostation calcutta's transport Hub that has to soak up the pressure and while Russia's are the same the world over is just that bit spicier facing the crowds today is Chief ticket inspector Prana patachaji [Applause] after 30 years on the job he can spot a ticket cheat just by looking at them in this place is it only face so I only look the eyes of the passengers every every name so the passengers who looks at me field personally out on track Harrah's Railway gangs are also up against it four and a half thousand workers look after Harrah's track and in charge of the team today is Mr SK sinner [Music] workload no holiday no rest allotted is 24 hours into 365 days a mile down the line at the tikiya para coach yard it's also Non-Stop [Music] yardmaster SK Mitra has to prep many of howrah's 1 000 daily trains but there's one service that has his attention more than most that is rajdhani Express leave at 16 o'clock so they have how many hours to do this six hours for apartments the rajdani is calcutta's overnight express train to the capital Delhi it needs to leave the Depot at 4 pm if it's to make an on-time departure so the pressure is on to get it looking and span from the control room Diana is closely following the rajdhani's cleaning schedule generally a lot of VIPs and important politicians travel by this train that's somebody very important is going traveling then we do give it a bit of special priority that day but we give a lot of focus on razani anyways every day of the year because it is a premium train like I mentioned and it is monitored on a regular basis by the railway board so to talk right between for us on The Concourse the heightened security is a sign that today's reg dhani will get even more attention than usual it's scheduled to carry calcutta's highest ranking VIP the most important political figure in the state the governor of West Bengal making sure the train leaves on time is operations manager Roshan Kumar Express we will take care that the train departs at right time and runs at 20 scheduled time in my division back at the yard the pressure is now on Mr Mitra and his team to prep the train and get it to Harris platform on time as the deadline approaches the last linen is loaded and the train is dispatched to Hara it pulls into harah's platform nine right on schedule once the gun the governor is on board it'll be down to Chief controller Deborah G chakraborty to make sure he gets a clear run to Delhi the main train of our division when practically found not of our division of Indian railways on The Concourse there's a different sort of priority foreign Ty Patrol the station checking on the welfare of howrah's homeless Railway children foreign Calcutta is one of India's poorest cities more than 40 children and their parents use the station to sleep and to beg inner [Music] the daily challenge is to get the kids to go to school [Music] [Music] the parents want the children to to be with them and ask for money from people so that your parents may have money to buy food and eat to live their life so pair sometime parents also that depend upon the children [Music] platform nine it's now 10 minutes before the reg Danish departure and its compartments are filling up the rajdani express slowly pulls out from platform nine foreign the governor and his entire staff with him have gone on the train and everything is perfectly fine and we will be monitoring it on the board right now and we'll see how it moves throughout the section the train has begun its 17-hour journey to Delhi but this is not the last sale here of the rajdhani express [Music] it's the start of evening Russia at India's busiest station howrah terminal in Calcutta million passengers pass through the station every day and at the ticket office all 80 counters are open for business and they are always in hurry I have to give the tickets as fast as possible thank you foreign commuters make their way home many with journeys of several hours ahead of them even the women-only carriages are feeling the strain [Applause] but everyone does their bit to make it more comfortable [Music] in Harris control room operations manager Diana Bala coordinates the station's tight Rush Hour timetable we run around uh a67 passenger trains uh 130 mail Express trains on a daily basis and around 200 uh freight trains so that's what it looks and its Chief controller debajit chakraborty who's under the most pressure so far Russia has been running smoothly but news is coming in about the luxury service to Delhi the rajdhani express Calcutta on time but now it's come to a halt a Dan Cooney a vital rail Junction 11 miles from howrah level [Music] although it's the signals that have gone it could indicate a more serious problem with the track I think it might be any reason so we have to go and physically check so that we don't find any real factor or something with the lime block trains are backing up behind the reg Donnie Diana and her team now face serious disruptions at the peak of Russia after rajdhani Express that may affect the other male Express also that's why we are then and then we inform the single control on The Concourse passengers are still arriving there are a bliss further down the line at the station signal Center they're battling to re-route trains in and out of howrah's 23 platforms to minimize the disruption foreign Express came to a halt outside Dan Cooney Junction and every second of delay is crucial but now there's good news the train is on the move again Diana's now got to worry about the knock-on effect of the rudge done is delay basically we're supposed to have three block sections ahead or other three stations ahead which should have green signal for the rajdhani so this happened right ahead of rajdhani so you can imagine the impact [Music] Services following the rajdhani along the line have now also been affected because honey was hit two other trains have also been affected so we will hope that those two make up on the run but then let's see we have a lot of other factors also deciding how a train moves so we'll see until it crosses a particular point we will not know that's the reg Donnie heads towards Delhi it's losing even more time almost the train is running at present is 24 minutes 24 minutes and it can say that the train will loss surely as because the 24 minutes will not make up that is a may come there is no makeup time that will be treated as serious case as because it is rajani Express yes it's a bit unfortunate but then it's a signal failure it's an asset failure and although we keep our assets well maintained there will be some chances some incidences when something will lapse somewhere so we try to minimize it as much as we can but let's say it's an active mode it's now approaching 7 p.m and there is no letter but however 14 million people live in calcutta's urban sprawl and many of them are still streaming across the Ganges heading for the station the local commuter trains have pulled to bursting and now the long distance services including India's vitally important mail trains are starting to ramp up on the platform's Constable Rinku nandi is doing her best to keep order content foreign [Music] up high side down on platform eight hundreds of passengers are waiting patiently for one of the most important Services of the night the Emirates are male scheduled to leave at 7 10. but bad news is coming in at the inquiry desk the Emirates are male has not yet arrived and its departure from howrah has been put back by several hours and the disruption is spreading to other services [Music] but it's not just the passengers who are affected by the delays [Applause] Harris mailmen now have to reorganize today's deliveries including all the posts scheduled for the delayed Amritsar mail ages but getting the mail back to the Sorting office during Russia is easier said than done tomorrow it's now ten past seven and attention has turned to platform nine and the next most important train of the night famous kalka mail one of the oldest services on the Indian Network the delay to the Amritsar male has meant that some passengers head into the north of India are now trying to board the kalka train and Railway police Constable shiv prakash Singh has to deal with the extra demand in the control room Diana is battling to get the train schedule back on track but there's a limit to what she can do you see we have very limited line capacity and each train runs behind each train so if the first train in a particular uh block of trains run late then it is very obvious that the trains running behind it will also get delayed so a loss in one train would mean a loss and five more trains so we have to make sure that all trains run right time so that no other trains are hit as more passengers arrive for the kalka mail there's news about the impending arrival of another long distance training the Humsafar Express traveling to India's remote north east is running two hours late it only leaves Hara once a week so no one wants to miss it [Music] number 12. it's now 8 p.m and the delayed Humsafar Express pulls in on platform 12. it's halfway through its four day journey and staff are under pressure to get the service out [Music] but passengers can't get on until those for Calcutta get off [Music] the Humsafar Express is finally on its way on its long journey to India's far north east but for those heading towards amritsa an important pilgrimage site for many Indians there's still a long wait [Applause] [Music] but as the clock ticks towards nine o'clock and with delays still occurring out on the network the face of the amritsa male remains uncertain [Music] it's the end of the day in Calcutta India's third largest city while some wash off the day's cares [Music] across the Ganges at Harrah station there's still a long night ahead [Applause] [Music] Sinner and his Railway gang are back on track carrying out vital repairs hello they're replacing damaged rails on a double switch Crossing on the approach to Harrah station observed and inspected that then not move safely yet the switch Crossing allows trains to move in and out of any of the station's 23 platforms and it's vital that it's ready for the morning Rush the rails are lifted into position now they need to check that the crossing mechanism is still working fitted jointly with no Gap when it is one minute one minute yeah the movable rail won't align correctly with the fixed Rail and time is running out on platform eight passengers for the amrits are male have been waiting for four hours but finally it's good news [Music] shortly before 11 pm the Amritsar train rolls into howrah mailbags are loaded on board for the 40-hour journey to the northwest of the country position s out on the tracks Mr Sinner and his work gang are still struggling to get the rail Crossing ready for morning Russia the moving rail should fit snugly against the fixed rail all right fortunately Mr Sinner's eagle eyes have spotted the cause of the problem there's an issue with how the rail has been fixed in place foreign must be reopened their success the Gap has been closed the lines are open again and not a moment too soon I am doing this to pleasure to maintain a smooth and safe traffic movement of passengers millions and millions are people are moving on train and their life are on uh depend on me [Music] it's the start of a new day at howrah terminal keeping the station and it's one million daily passengers 1200 train movements and 23 platforms up and running is a constant challenge for the man in charge of the howrah division multiple trains are being received and dispatched from Harvard station at a time we have to make sure that the passengers don't Collide into each other the movement is free there are no stampedes because any slight mishap any change of the platforms that can result in the catastrophic so we have to really make sure the system flows smoothly and I'm really happy that my team of people who handle these jobs are very very efficient very experienced and they do this job day in and day out without any hiccup 35.com back on shift for the morning Rush his Railway police Constable Rinku nandy [Music] are we holidays just after 9 00 am Constable nandi has been called to her first passenger incident of the morning two commuters have been fighting over a seat on an incoming train one man is saying the other attacked him but the accused says it wasn't him who started it it's getting heated and Constable nandy calls for backup on the other side of the Concourse another incident is unfolding at the first aid Point nurse Anjali Dass is helping a young passenger who's struggling to breathe what condition and hasn't taken her pills the patient's situation is going from bad to worse foreign [Music] with the Swift arrival of the ambulance on the Concourse one stressful situation is resolved [Music] but back at the police booth it's getting even more heated the arrival of armed officers was meant to restore some order now other passengers are joining in a constable rajable Basha has been brought into calm it all down but now the accused wants to have his say hey officer Bashar offers the accuser the chance to make a formal complaint but that will involve lengthy paperwork and the man is now having second thoughts they leave the man towards the police station to start the formal process but this is more than he'd bargained for [Music] no yes the man decides to withdraw his complaint but even as they walk away neither of the men will let it go and this time the police have just had enough [Music] settled [Music] away from the drama operations manager Diana Bala is back in the control room she needs to make sure the morning rusher goes as smoothly as possible positions around just to know how the trains are moving and what are the actions that needs to be planned for the day agriculture our basic aim is to keep the wheels rolling because we cannot afford to have a train stop out of course because that will only create a chaos it will cause problem with the passengers who've been traveling for so many kilometers and for so many hours but with vital track maintenance schedule for this morning that's going to prove a major challenge Mr Sinner and his team are back on track just hours after finishing their night shift with no possibility of stopping Services they only have a 15-minute window between trains to get the job done in daytime due to density of traffic Department cannot allow a traffic block today they're doing maintenance on an important component the fish plate that holds the rails together [Music] perhaps just 15 minutes to take it apart clean and grease it and put it back together [Music] I suppose he can now carry out important checks I am observing if any crack found under under the bottom of the rail this phone then we ready to change the rail and changing the rail would mean stopping the traffic on this busy line during Russia all good but Mr sin is 15-minute window is nearly up there's a train now waiting to get into its platform and the train won't wait any longer [Music] it's 10 a.m just after morning Russia at Harrah station Calcutta on the platform Celestine and giotti are back on their daily Patrol checking on Harrah's vulnerable homeless children [Music] India and there's an even more disturbing reality here children are regularly abandoned on trains arriving from the countryside and Celestine and giotti need to find them before they're put at even more risk [Music] back at the dedicated child welfare booth on The Concourse a young boy has just been found on an incoming train he has nothing but a telephone number written on his arm s I don't know foreign I don't know he is hungry he told that two or three days he don't take food he came here by trained by a local train but he does not know now where to go some are written up by their parents some are chased out from home every single children has got their different purpose to come to come to this place [Music] out on the tracks outside the station Mr Sinner and his team have a 15-minute slot between trains to finish vital rail maintenance and time has just run out [Music] they've cut it close but the team's work is done the track has been made safe and no trains were delayed in the control room Diana and her team alongside the rest of howrah's 28 000 strong Workforce have got through another Rush Hour there's a lot of rain in this and there's a lot of fulfillment also because I I personally hear I'm dealing with 1 million customers at Power Station but if I look at the entire map of our provision we are dealing with more than 5 million people and Catering to their needs ensuring their safety that is my job from train guards to nurses engineers and train drivers howrah's hard-working staff have kept the service up and running and its passengers safe in one of the most crowded and challenging environments in the world they are in the true sense soldiers of India and you know I don't know really I don't know what motivates them but once you are a railway man that too in particularly in Indian railways your life is devoted to the railways they just work day in and day out it's a tremendous job [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Free Documentary - Engineering

Views: 1,429,772

Keywords: free documentary, free documentary engineering, engineering, engineering documentary, tech, tech documentary, constructions, constructions documentary, technology documentary

Id: IbsWW6Ln42M

Length: 41min 33sec (2493 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 01 2023