Kolkata – Shantytown along active rail tracks
Local train in Kolkata passes through an area where people built dwelling shacks along the rail tracks. Between train passes, the tracks serve as the front yard for the people who live there, fulfilling their basic needs even in these unbelievable conditions.
80% of them are Bangladeshis because there are around 1.5 crore Bangladeshis living in West Bengal and total of around 4 crore all around the country living in slum.
Video – Guy Shachar
The Kolkata Suburban Railway is a suburban rail system serving the suburbs surrounding the city of Kolkata. Railways such as this are important and heavily used infrastructure in India. It is the largest suburban railway network in India by track length and number of stations.Introduced by the British in 1927/28, the electrified suburban railway of Kolkata had 2 parts viz Eastern section & BNR section.
The Eastern Section Eastern Railway (ER), when introduced, ran from Howrah to Bardhhaman via Bandel as Main Line and via Kamarkundu as Chord Line. The BNR Section South Eastern Railway (SER)when introduced, ran from Howrah to Midnapore.Now Kolkata Sub-Urban Railway has 348 stations and a track length of 1,172 km.The suburban railway operates 1450 EMU services and 159 MEMU services carrying 3.1 million (31.51 lakhs) people daily.It runs from 4 a.m to 2 a.m in the night.
Currently the Sub-Urban railway services in Kolkata are operated by Eastern Railway (ER) and South Eastern Railway (SER). The Kolkata Metro (KMRCL) operates the underground Metro services in the city as well. There is a separate Circular Railway corridor in the city also operated by ER under Sealdah Division. The Howrah line of Eastern Railways has a rolling stock of 12 coach EMU made by Jessop and ICF. BEML emus have also been bought and they are in use . The Sealdah line has a rolling stock of 9,10,12 car EMU made by Jessop and ICF. 2 BEML EMU trains of 9 coaches are also operational. The south eastern railways uses both 9 and 12 coaches emu made by Jessop and ICF.
