Team News Riveting
The Howrah-Kalka Mail that was most popular among the British bureaucrats had been named after Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
The Ministry of Railways has rechristened the name of Train No. 12311/12312 Howrah-Kalka Mail as “Netaji Express”, a statement by the Indian Railways said. It is noteworthy that Howrah -Kalka Mail is a very popular and one of the oldest trains of Indian Railways, running between Howrah (Eastern Railway) and Kalka (Northern Railway) via Delhi, it added.
The move is linked with the commemoration of Netaji’s 125th birth anniversary. Railways Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted: “Netaji’s ‘prakram’ (valour) put India on the express route of freedom and development. I am thrilled to celebrate his birth anniversary with the introduction of ‘Netaji Express’.”
Indeed, Subhash Chandra Bose was the Nationalist whose bold patriotism made him a hero not only in India but across the globe. He revamped the Indian National Army and played a crucial role to oust Britishers. Netaji and his Army unleashed a reign of fear among the Britishers; forcing to quit and free India.
Now, the train that British bureaucrats used for their lavishness would have Netaji’s stamp. Once chugging with top brass of the British India administration including Viceroy, the Howrah-Mumbai Kalka Mail will now run as “Netaji Express.”
Originally number 1 Up and 2 Down, the East Indian Railway Company began the operation of the train between Calcutta and Delhi in 1866 as the “East Indian Railway Mail”. It was later extended to Kalka in 1891.
The train was the principal mechanism by which British civil servants moved to their summer capital in Simla from Calcutta with the entire government machinery traveling on the train at the start of the summer months and returning by it at the end of summer.
Both stations, Howrah as well as Kalka, had internal carriageways running along the platform so that the Viceroy and other high-ranking officers could drive right up to their rail coaches.
