General Railway Topics

Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR)

  • The Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) connects Mettupalayam with the hill station of Udagamandalam (Ootacamund or Ooty) in Tamil Nadu.
  • It uses rack and pinion system to climb the steep gradient(1 in 12 steepest in India), the only railway line in India to use this system.
  • NMR was opened in 1908 and was operated by the former Madras Railway Company.
  • In 2005,UNESCO added the Nilgiri Mountain Railway to the World Heritage Site.

Indian Railways Fact Sheet

  • Third largest railway network in the world with route kilometer of nearly  64,000 route km.
  • IR operations span 170 years, from the first train that ran from Mumbai to Thane on April 16, 1853.
  • 19,000 trains are run every day including 12,000 passenger trains and 7,000 freight trains.
  • Over 7,000 stations.
  • Transports 2.65 million tonnes of freight every day.
  • Ferries 23 million passengers every day, 7.2 billion annually.
  • 1.36 million employees on its rolls.

Railway Territorial Army (TA)

  • Territorial Army gives opportunity for Railwaymen to undergo military training for one month every year. In the event of a national emergency trained Railwaymen maybe called upon to meet needs of
  1. Country’s defense.
  2. Internal security.
  3. To keep Rail services uninterrupted during war and in designated areas.
  4. To help Railway administration during Railway strikes and in natural calamities like flood etc.

Benefits for the Employees on joining Territorial Army

Train Controllers' Strike

All India Train Controllers Association (AITCA) is planning a mass casual leave on International Labour Day (May 1) to air a series of demands which includes higher pay scales, stress allowance (30 percent of basic pay), mike allowance (at ten pc basic) and break down allowance . The Association demands Rs 15,600- 39,100 pay band for chief controllers and deputy chief controllers and Rs 9,300- 34,800 for section controllers.