Munger & Jamalpur

Jamalpur still is an important place on the map of eastern railways because it boasts of one of the earliest railway locomotive workshop in the country established way back in 1862. It has also a railway engineering collage that produces top class mechanical engineers for the Indian railways.

The eastern side of Jamalpur has row of independent houses for the officers working in the railway workshop and other important railway establishment in Jamalpur. During the British rule, the East colony looked almost like a little England and was an exclusive white zone. The church and the cemetery there tell the story to even to those who are not looking for one.

Any discussion among the passengers boarding the train from Jamalpur invariably takes to the talks on the heydays of the Raj and some old-timers my recall the activities in the east-colony with great enthusiasm, now a thing of a past.

Mr Sinha, a police inspector and two young people working at the railway workshop in Jamalpur was my companion in the train journey to Kolkata. While Sinha was traveling to Sahibganj, a three hours journey to join his duty, spending his weekend in Jamalpur, the others were traveling with their families to attend a wedding at Kolkata.

Sinha, a potbelly, thick mustached man had fudged his date of birth and was still serving the Bihar police even getting close to 70. His retirement was due in two months and he was lamenting about it. He wished to die in office at the ripe age enjoying all the facilities that men in police uniform enjoy in that backward state that sits at the bottom of developmental index in the country.

A great fan of the Raj, Sinha had the first hand experience of the `White Sahibs.' He kept every one captivated with stories about the life in the east colony of Jamalpur.

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A pillar and portion of the bridge collapsed at around 0630 hrs this morning due to the vibration on the ground caused by the moving train, the sources said.

It is feared that hundreds of passengers are still trapped in compartments S-7, S-8, S-9 of the train.

The express train, being very popular on this route was heavily crowded.

Railway authorities had asked a contractor to get the bridge dismantled. While this work was still going on, the debris of the bridge fall on three bogies of the train.

This bridge is 150 years old. Some days ago another tragedy was averted.

However, the team had a couple of anxious moments after they were reduced to ten men -- Rohit was sent off following rough play -- as Uttar Pradesh tried to stage a late comeback through Anil Rao who scored in the 79th minute. Anil was also instrumental in creating a couple of chances, but none could get past the strong Punjab defence.

Though it was a player from UP who started the rough play, Rohit was shown the red card after he deliberately kicked the player on the shin. But this was not the only instance when the referee got it wrong.

Only security personnel and officials could be seen in the hamlet in Sheikhpura district, 100km from here, which was the scene of the Saturday night killings.

"It would help if you didn't insist on asking us who the people behind this gruesome incident were," said Ishwari Prasad Churashia, who lost three of his family members, including two children, in the massacre.

Police suspect it was the handiwork of gangster Ashok Mahto and his accomplices.

Since then, the few admission seats for one of the country's first engineering college have always been hotly contested, with as many as 1 to 1.5 lakh candidates taking the entrance examination, now conducted by UPSC, for about 10 seats.That translates into an astonishing ratio of 1 selection per 10,000 applicants

The scheme has continued to draw the country's best talent after independence and has provided Indian Railways with its top-ranking officers in all walks. Many of the Institute's alumni have won international accolade for having acheived excellence in their chosen careers, which include inventors, academicians, entrepreneurs, and high-ranking officers in other nations.

The examination comprises written test in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, English Language, General Knowledge, and Psychological Test (Mental Ability). The selected candidates are called for an interview, which is followed by a medical examination. The standard of syllabus is that of Class XII (CBSE equivalent).

The notice for the examination, along with form and syllabus, is brought out by the UPSC around the months of June-July. According to the new rules issued by the Ministry of Railways, the exam is now conducted once every two years.

The selected candidates undergo a four-year rigorous training programme in Mechanical Engineering, for which the Institute has a Memorandum of Understanding with BIT, Mesra, Ranchi. The semester system of BIT, Mesra is followed, with workshop training sessions during the holidays at BIT, Mesra.

The apprentices get a stipend in the scale of Rs. 4000-4400 with Dearness Allowance,making the final emoluments upto Rs. 7400, apart from medical benefits, privelege passes and PTOs.

After successful completion of four years of training, the candidates join as Indian Railway Services of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME) Officers in Indian Railways to face a challanging and satisfying career.

This egalitarian title is now given to what used to be the European Colony in colonial days.There is a Jamalpur beyond the East Colony also,but most things in this town begin end here.The first turning to the right is the Workshop Road,that leads to the Eastern Railway Locomotive Workshop,the biggest and the oldest in the country.

It was only after the setting up of the temples of modern India after independance that bigger workshops were built.you next pass the Club Road and Stadium Road.You soon cross the Golf Road,before you come to Gymkhana Road on your left.

Standing between these roads, you see a vast expanse of a rolling green maidan stretching towards a right that seems to cover your entire field of view.This maidan is the Golf Course,a small but reasonably well kept 9-hole course,that is perhaps the cheapest in the world to play golf on.

Right in the centre of the course, you will note what looks like a grave. The epitaph on the tombstone tells you the gory tale:a 27 year old Foreman of the Erecting Shop was killed by a tiger near the spot two years after the workshop had been established in 1862. In the tranquil serenity of the present maidan, tigers had roamed in the not too distant past. If this was the situation,then why Jamalpur, is the question that is often asked.

The answer lies in the history of the area and the nearby town of Munger (earlier Monghyr). The inhabitants of this town and the surrounding areas had always been a reservoir of skilled craftsman in mechanical fields like ironware - notably guns ,pistols ,spears, and other weapons.

It is not a coincidence that Monghyr was often referred to as the "Birmingham of the East" in those days. It will also not be out of place to record that Jamalpur was on what was then intended to be the mainline of the Railway,had good water supply and congenial surroundings.

Jamalpur was at first only an engine changing station. The actual headquarters of the Locomotive Department were at Howarah,but the latter not only possessed great drawbacks but was too confined to permit extensions.There was ,in fact., no room for the work shop of the Locomotive Department as well as the Company's carriage and wagon works, and after long and matured consideration , it was decided to remove the former to Jamalpur .

Mr. John Strachan , the then Locomotive Superintendent of the Company,gives the following account for the cause of the removal."It was not till the early sixties that the late D.W.campbell decided to remove the workshops to Jamalpur ,and this was owing to the drivers and fitters giving trouble.They were covenanted men from home who had left their families there,and as hotel and billiard rooms were their only amusement,it was no uncommon thing for men to leave the shops during working hours and adjourn to a hotel that was then opposite to the railway station...
"There were also several other places of amusement in Howrah and Calcutta to which men could go and among them was a place known as Wilson's Coffee Room.

"One day Mr. Campbell,returning from the weekly Meeting in the Agent's Office ,happened to call at Wilson's Coffee Room for tiffin,and here he found three of his principle foremen and two engine drivers enjoying themselves in rather a boisterous manner......The men were quickly retired,and after that Mr. Campbell never rested until he had the workshops and the Locomotive offices removed from Howrah to Jamalpur."

And,so it was that the Locomotive Workshop came to be located at Jamalpur.By 1890,the workshop had 3122 men ,which grew to 9528 by 1906.(In its heydays 30 years back,the figure was 14000).By this time ,the number of locomotives whose overhaulwas based at Jamalpur had grown to 952.Since there was virtually no industry in the country,the workshop grew to be totally self sufficient.It set up the country's first rolling mill in 1879,as well as the raiway's first captive powerhouse,which was set up in 1895.A steel foundry with a 7-ton open-hearth furnace started operations in 1898.

The Iron foundry was amongst the best in the country and even produced cast iron sleepers.
Jamalpur has the distinction of manufacturing locomotives well before Chittaranjan Locomotive Works were set up. A total of 214 locomotives were built at jamalpur between 1899 and 1932.

Along with the technical side of the development ,care was also taken to develop the human resource.A Technical School was set up in 1988 for Trade Apprentices with one teacher.In 1905, the training of Apprentice Mechanics was started for Anglo-Indians and later in 1911,the Apprentice Mechanic scheme was thrown open to indians also.It is chronicled elsewhere in this issue,how the training of special class Apprentices at the Technocal School in 1927,set into motion the chain of events that we are commemorating this year.

Jamalpur has always attracted visitors who could well be a Who's Who of the land.A sampling of the messages recorded in the Visitor's Book of the Workshop can be seen in this write up.

Even today,the Workshop and the Training institute at Jamalpur are the mainstay of not only Jamalpur town but also the entire district of Munger.Although there are other workshops and units in the Railways and outside that are bigger and more contemporary than the Locomotive Workshop at Jamalpur today,the words of Mr.Huddlestone,C.I.E,Chief Superintendent of the East Indian Railway,give an idea of the Spirit behind Jamalpur.

Adorning its frontage was the Viceregal Insignia of Her Majesty's Representative.Four and a half feet high and made of solid cast iron ,the intricate Insignia (shown left) included a Lion and a unicorn,crowns and festoons.The original insignia now has pride of place at the Indian Railway Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering(IRIMEE) at Jamalpur,where it hangs resplendedly on one of the walls in the lobby outside the Director's chamber.The insignia was cast in 1870 in the Iron Foundry of the East Indian Railways' locomotive workshop at Jamalpur within a few years of the latter being set up in 1862.

It's intricacy ,its fineness ,the fact that it has survived more than a century ,is testimony if any is needed,of the skill of the workmen and the state of contemporary art that the workshop has achieved.The workshop was the largest in the country at the time and in the 19th century itself,had many other firsts,like the first Rolling Mill and the first Powerhouse,to its credit.

Surely,it played a mojor role in acting as a catalyst for the entire mechanical engineering industry in the country.It was the creation of works of arts like the Viceroy's insignia ,which were also symbols of power,that set the tone of workshop.The evolution of this spirit of excellence in mechanical engineering at Jamalpur was the force behind the creation of such works of art.It is for this reason that this insignia has been selected to represent the threat that binds this volume you are holding together.

It was only natural that when the British attempted to Indianise mechanical engineering education in India,the location that they selected was Jamalpur. Be that as it may,on 14th february 1927, the first batch of special Class Apprentices arrived at Jamalpur,thus giving birth to the concept of Indians receiving an education in mechanical engineering in India.Prior to this ,all mechanical engineers ,whether European or Indian,were educated overseas.With this historic event began the industrialisation of was then called Mechanical Engineering and Transportation(Power) Department(METP).

Jamalpur became and continues to remain ,the cradle of members of the METP.Years later,in 1970, METP was recristened as the Indian Railways Service of Mechanical engineers(IRSME).Till the dawn of independence ,all recruitment to the IRSME continued through the Special Class Apprentice Scheme at Jamalpur barring a few mechanical engineers being recruited as War Service candidates in the Second World War years. It was only after India was declared a republic the direct recruitment of mechanical engineers was also started into the IRSME in 1951.In the early years training of these direct recruits was not established in one place and was divided between jamalpur and kharagpur.

    However by the late sixties ,training of all direct recruits was consolidated at Kharagpur under an Officer on Special Duty(OSD).In 1988,the Railway Board decided to centralise the training of all IRSME officers under Director IRIMEE.Although the Director thus became responsible for the training and a fair amount of directed classroom started at Jamalpur,probationary officers still reported
to the OSD at Kharagpur,who was placed under the control of the Director at Jamalpur.

Jamalpur was at a very far distance from the Bengal and Bihar coalfields, which was the most important criterion for selecting the place for locomotive workshop way back in 1860s. The place  is also off the mainline  of EIR. The most important fatal draw back was the place has no natural water supply. This can be construed as a great blunder on the part of EIR.

Jamalpur was at a very far distance from the Bengal and Bihar coalfields, which was the most important criterion for selecting the place for locomotive workshop way back in 1860s. The place  is also off the mainline  of EIR. The most important fatal draw back was the place has no natural water supply. This can be construed as a great blunder on the part of EIR.

 Jamalpur is best known as a very large workshop on the East Indian Railway, employing at one time, over 12,000 persons and over 1000 Anglo-Indians. Jamalpur was overnight from Calcutta and was famous for its Anglo-Indian social life. The Railway Institute was huge - it had its own movie theatre, a six-lane swimming pool, four tennis courts, two billiard rooms and a bowling lawn. Its dances were renowned and railway folk came from all over EIR to attend.

IRIMEE conducts short term courses for IRSME Officers and other Organisations, 18 months training for IRSME Probationary Officers and four years undergraduate programme for the Special Class Apprentices.

Courses Coming Up  
03.04.06-26.05.06 06-BILWC-1 Integrated Course for Group B Officers. Register
10.04.06-14.04.06 06-MITB-1 Computer Basic Course for Officers Upto SG. Register
17.04.06-21.04.06 06-MWP-1 Works, M&P and Rolling Stock Programme for Officers Upto SG. Register
24.04.06-28.04.06 06-MLIW-1 Legal issues in Workshop Management for Officers Upto SAG.

13.02.06 KC Lal Memorial Seminar organised.
14.02.06 IRIMEE Annual Day celebrated. IRIMEE Annual Report for 2005 was presented by the Director.

Area : 5,74,654 sq. meters

Staff : 11,485

No. of Machinery and Plants : 1628

Power consumed : 7 MVA

Water supply : 73 lakh litres /day.

"The railways belongs to the entire country," he said, particularly addressing the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam members from Tamil Nadu. The AIADMK had alleged discrimination in the conversion of metre gauge to broad gauge in the State, as well as the decision to take up Chennai in the second phase for a dedicated freight corridor.

He said the dedicated freight corridor would be built from Delhi to Mumbai and Howrah in seven to eight years, based on passenger and commercial considerations. "This corridor would then be taken to Chennai. There is no question of discrimination. We have made a timetable for efficiency and will stick to it," he told AIADMK leader P.G. Narayanan, who initiated the discussion.

Four persons involved in the heft of railway materials were arrested by the RPF team. They were identified as Prakash Mahto, Umesh Mahto, Dilip Kumar and Ranjeet Mandal.

According to Danapur RPF commandant Jitendra Srivastava, this gang of criminals had been active in the areas of Kiul, Jamalpur and Munger for a long time.

In a police-criminal encounter on Monday night in Jamalpur, Surendra Kumar, the Jamalpur police station in-charge was shot and killed though the police also managed to gun down a dreaded criminal Akku Singh in the encounter.

At around 8:30 pm, Kumar, who had joined the Jamalpur police station only a week ago, along with a police team left for Rampur locality to capture Akku Singh wh