JAMALPUR A BIRDS EYE VIEW

Jamalpur is a city and a municipality in Munger district in the Indian state of Bihar. Jamalpur, the name literally means beautiful (Jamal-) town (-pur) and that is a literal description of the place. Jamalpur is best known for its large railway workshop in the Eastern Railway Zone (India) and the railway institute IRIMEE (The Indian Railways Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering). Jamalpur is best known as a very large workshop on the East Indian Railway, employing over 25,000 people at one time. 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.

Geography
Jamalpur is located at 2518N 8630E / 25.3, 86.5.[1]. It has an average elevation of 151 metres (495 feet). The city 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 towns. However, currently the rail link is discontinued because of the Ganga Bridge works in Munger and will be operational only once the project is operational. It is an overnight journey from Kolkata. The nearest airport is at Patna, around four hours from Jamalpur by rail. Kolkata is the nearest airport to the east from which Jamalpur can be reached by Rail. Jamalpur also has a small airstrip.

Demographics
As of 2001 India census, Jamalpur had a population of 98,743. Males constitute 54 of the population and females 48%. Jamalpur has an average literacy rate of 79%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 85%, and female literacy is 73%. In Jamalpur, 16% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Railway workshop
Jamalpur Workshop was the first full-fledged railway workshop facilities in India, set up on Feb. 8, 1862 by the East Indian Railway. 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 1|Page

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 - the Rolling Mill and the Nut & Bolt Shop were closed down in 1984). In addition to various repairs of wagons, coaches, cranes and tower cars, and locomotives, Jamalpur Workshop 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 wheel sets 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 highcapacity synchronized lifting jacks known as 'Jamalpur Jacks' were also produced by this workshop. The school attached to the Jamalpur workshops eventually became the Indian Railway Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering (IRIMEE).

Ananda Marga Movement

Ananda Marga was founded by a Jamalpur native Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar in 1955. P.R. Sakar left his job as a railway official and formed the first chapter of Ananda Marga ("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. 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.

Famous places
Baba The name of Jamalpur comes from Pir Jamaluddin whose grave lies at this holy place and no visit to Jamalpur is complete without paying an obeisance at this holy place on Golf Road. A must-visit on Friday. JSA Stadium One of the best maintained small stadiums in the state, has seen a number of football matches held between different teams in the eastern region of India compete with each other. Gymkhana Gymkhana is the hostel and club used by the Special Class Railway Apprentice

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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. It also has the grave of an Englishman who was killed by a tiger. The grave of the tiger is not very far away. Madras Coffee House (Also known as Heer Ka Dukan) It used to be a half century old small shop selling sweet meats like jalebis. In front of it was the town's rikshaw stand. The Madras Coffee House caters to food aficionados not intended for soft tourists but for people who have come to visit Jamalpur for railways or other nostalgic purposes. Geetobitan An excellent quarter century old music school near Hari Sabha being run single-handedly ( Mrs Rumela Gupta ) by a senior lady with a pronounced handicap. Most of the railway men's children pursue music, dance and arts at this beginners place starting from as young as two. Surprisingly it is just the goodwill and the basic infrastructure with some local help that is keeping it going. Good place for stimulating discussions on Indian classical Music. Kali Pahadi There is a Mountain Named Kali Pahadi there's a Mandir of goddes Maa Kali which is situated on top of mountain.

Spirit of Jamalpur
Alighting from your train at Jamalpur Junction station of the Eastern Railway and making your way through the market adjacent to it, you are not likely to be impressed. Turning right at the end of what could well be called the station road, you cross an over-bridge and enter the Railway East Colony. 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 independence 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.

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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 Companys 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 Wilsons Coffee Room. One day Mr. Campbell, returning from the weekly Meeting in the Agents Office, happened to call at Wilsons Coffee Room for tiffin, and here he found three of his principle foremen and two engine drivers enjoying themselves in rather a boisterous manne. 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 heyday 30 years back, the figure was 14,000). By this time, the number of locomotives whose overhaul was 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 countrys first rolling mill in 1879, as well as the railways 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 4|Page

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 Whos Who of the land. A sampling of the messages recorded in the Visitors 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. There are, of course,larger Railway shops existing in Europe but not few are more self contained or better occupied with modern electrically driven machinery than this workshop.

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