Jamalpur, Bihar
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| Jamalpur | |
  Jamalpur
|
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| State - District(s) |
Bihar - Munger |
| Coordinates | |
| Area - Elevation |
- 151 m |
| Time zone | IST (UTC+5:30) |
| Population (2001) - Density |
96,659 - |
Jamalpur is a city and a municipality in Munger district in the Indian state of Bihar.
Jamalpur is best known as a very large workshop on the East Indian Railway, employing at one time, over 12,000 persons. The town was established during the British Raj and the cultural hub at that time was the Railway Institute. 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 the East India Railway (EIR) to attend.
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[edit] Geography
Jamalpur is located at [1]. It has an average elevation of 151 metres (495 feet).
The town is in the Munger district. Munger is 8 km North West of Jamalpur. There is a road as well as a rail link between the two towns. It is an overnight journey from Calcutta
The nearest airport is at Patna from where Jamalpur is around four hours by Rail. Alternatively on the Eastern side Kolkata is the nearest airport from where Jamalpur can be reached by Rail. Jamalpur also has a small airstrip.
[edit] Demographics
As of 2001 India censusGRIndia, Jamalpur had a population of 96,659. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Jamalpur has an average literacy rate of 73%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 80%, and female literacy is 65%. In Jamalpur, 14% of the population is under 6 years of age.
[edit] Landmarks
This was the first full-fledged railway workshop facilities in India, set up on Feb. 8, 1862 by the East Indian Railway. (There was an earlier attempt to set up workshop facilities at Howrah, but it proved unsuccessful because of problems with procuring supplies and getting skilled labour.) The Jamalpur site was chosen for its proximity both to the Sahibganj loop (which was the main trunk route at the time), and to the communities of gunsmiths and other mechanical craftsmen in Bihar who would prove to be adept at picking up the skills required in a railway workshop.
Another, possibly apocryphal account, though, has it that one of the Agents of the EIR Mr D W Campbell, was annoyed that the fitters and workmen of the then Howrah workshop were spending too much time away from their work in places of recreation in Howrah, and resolved to move the workshop facilities to a place far away where there would be no such distractions.
At first the Jamalpur shops were merely repairing locomotives and also assembling locomotives from parts salvaged from other, damaged locomotives. By the turn of the century, however, they had progressed to producing their own locomotives. The first one, CA 764 'Lady Curzon', was produced in 1899.
Jamalpur has always had extensive workshop facilities. In 1893, the first railway foundry in India was set up there. It also had a boiler workshop for repairing and building boilers. Today it has foundry and metallurgical lab facilities, extensive machine tool facilities, etc., in addition a captive power plant of 5MVA, making it fairly self-contained. It used to have a rolling mill of its own (set up in 1870, now closed).
In addition to various repairs of wagons, coaches, cranes and tower cars, and locomotives, Jamalpur also undertakes repair and (small-scale) production of permanent-way fixtures. It also manufactures some tower cars (Mark II, Mark III) and break-down cranes of 10, 20, and 140 tonne capacities, besides various kinds of heavy-duty lifting jacks.
Finally, it also manufactures wheelsets for coaches and wagons. In the past it was a significant supplier of cast-iron sleepers as well. Starting in 1961 it produced several rail cranes. It has also produced electric arc furnaces, ticket printers and other ticket machines (slitting, counting, and chopping). The high-capacity synchronized lifting jacks known as 'Jamalpur Jacks' were also produced by this workshop.
The school attached to the Jamalpur workshops eventually became the IR Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.
This is the hostel and club used by the Special Class Railway Apprentices
Golf Course
Just down the Gymkhana avenue is the golf course that is frequented by the Railway and Army officers. The annual ITC Golf tournament is held here.
The golf course also has the grave of an Englishman who was killed by a tiger. Interestingly, the grave of the tiger is not too far away.
Territorial Army
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North Tank
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Waterfall
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[edit] Notables
Anand Marg Movement The movement was founded by a Jamalpur native. In 1955, P.R. Sakar left his job as a railway official and formed the first chapter of Ananda Marg ("Path of Bliss") in Jamalpur, Bihar, India. He started to train missionaries to spread his teaching of "self-realization and service to humanity" (which became the motto of Ananda Marga) into India and the rest of the world, and in 1962 initiated the first monk (called Dada which means elder brother) of Ananda Marg.
The mission of Ananda Marga is to help individuals achieve complete self-realization and to build a social structure in which the physical, mental and spiritual needs of all people can be fulfilled. Ananda Marga contributes to the process of individual development by providing instruction in meditation and other yoga practices on a non-commercial basis.
