Title - Gorakhpur gets world's largest railway platform

GORAKHPUR: The Gorakhpur railway station became the proud owner world's longest home platform on Sunday after GM, NER, KK Atal inaugurated the remodelled Gorakhpur Yard.

The remodelling work was completed on war-footing within the scheduled time. With the inauguration of the remodelled yard, Gorakhpur now has a platform measuring 1366.33 metres with ramp and 11355.40 metres without it. With this achievement, the NER has also secured a place in the Limca Book of Records. The certificate for the same would be issued soon. The achievement of the Gorakhpur station would also be incorporated in the Guinness Book of World Records. The postal department too is likely to release a special cover to mark the achievement.

After inaugurating the newly installed route relay interlocking system, the GM also flagged off 12555 Gorakhdham Express (Gorakhpur to Hisar). Later, talking to reporters, Atal, said, "I congratulate the people of Gorakhpur on getting the privilege of world's longest railway platform in the city. I also appreciate the cooperation of the people of Gorakhpur as more than half of the work was completed within 11 days. I also appreciate the dedication of rail employees and officers who worked day and night for to ensure completion of work within the time limit."

On the occasion, the GM announced award of Rs 1 lakh each for the construction department, signal construction department and Lucknow division and an award of Rs 50,000 for the headquarters.

Chief operating manager, RV Singh, chief signal and telecommunication engineer, HK Agarwal, chief administrative officer, Onkar Singh, chief signal telecommunication engineer, HK Agarwal, DRM Lucknow, Anoop Kumar, ADRM (Lucknow), chief engineer (construction), ON Verma, chief signal telecommunication engineer (construction) SN Sah, SDGM, PN Rai, CCM, Arvind Kumar, CPRO, Alok Kumar Singh, secretary to GM, Amit Singh along with senior railway officials were also present at the inaugural ceremony.