1. Brief History ;-
It was in 1849 that the first contract was given to East Indian Railway Company for the construction of a railway line from Calcutta (Now Kolkata) towards Mirzapur. In the same very year another contract was made with the Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company for the construction of another Railway line from Bombay ( Now Mumbai) to Kalyan.
The first section from Bombay ( now Mumbai) to Thane consisting of 32 kms was opened on16th of April, 1853 and the other section from Howrah to Hoogly consisting of 35 kms was opened on 22nd August, 1854.The extention of the railways was set off throughout the country. On the north- eastern side of Mumbai, the Great India Peninsular Railway line was extended up to Bhusawal and then split in two. While one track led to Nagpur, the other to Jabalpur to connect with the East Indian Railway line from Allahabad to Jabalpur, thereby connecting Mumbai and Kolkata.
The Bengal Nagpur Railway was formed in 1887 for the purpose of upgrading the Nagpur Chhattisgarh line and then extending it via Bilaspur to Asansol, in order to develop a shorter Howrah- Mumbai route then the one via Allahabad. The Nagpur Chhattisgarh Railway was owned by the Provincial Government. The Nagpur Chhattisgarh Railway was purchased from Great Indian Peninsula Railway by Bengal Nagpur Railway in 1888. The Bengal Nagpur Railway main line from Nagpur to Asansol was opened for goods traffic on 1st February 1891. It was only after Kharagpur was linked from the west and the south that is was connected to Howrah in 1900. The Bengal Nagpur Railway was renamed as South Eastern Railway.
The maintenance and security of Railways, the vital artery of national commission and economic progress has been a major concern of the Government of India that goes back to the times when the Railway commenced their operations in India in 1854. On the recommendation of Railway Police Committee, 1872, Railway was organized into “GOVT POLICE”(The precursor of GRP) for Law enforcement and “ Company Police” ( The precursor of RPF) for “Watch & Ward” duties in Railways. The actual separation of duties came into effect in 1881. By 1882, as a result of formal division of the Police Force deployed on the Railways into “Government Police”and Private(companies) Police”,The Railway companies directly assumed the responsibility of protection and security of their property as well as of the goods entrusted to them by public for carriage.
Presently Zonal Head Quarter office of RPF department of South Eastern Railway is situated at Garden Reach, BNR south Colony, Kolkata, west Bengal-700043. However prior to that this Head Quarter office of South Eastern Railway RPF department was situated in 14, Hem Chandra Street, Kolkata-700023, near Khidirpore, Kolkata. The office was shifted in the mid of 1973 and thereafter it is running in the same location at Garden Reach, Kolkata-700043. Sri Durgagati Bhattacharjee, Ex-IGP/West Bengal was the 1st Chief Security Officer of S.E.Railway, RPF department. The Staff Officer was nominated as one Gazetted officer of Personal Branch of S.E.Railway, designated as PA to Chief Security Officer, which was subsequently withdrawn in the year 1980 and one Assistant Security Officer was designated as Staff Officer to Chief Security Officer. The Zonal Head Quarter office of RPF department of South Eastern Railway centrally controls total establishment of RPF Executive and Ministerial Staff over four Divisions of S.E.Railway. All the policy matters either framed at Railway Board or at Zonal Level are implemented through Zonal Head Quarter office of RPF department of South Eastern Railway. This Railway had 08 divisions namely Kharagpur, Adra, Chakradharpur, Sambalpur ,Waltair,Bilaspur,Nagpur and Khuarda before trifurcation into three zones namely SER,ECR,SECR in the year 2003. After trifurcation one new division, Ranchi has been created taking some portion of ADA and CKP. At present SER running with four divisions like KGP,ADA,CKP and RNC.
2. Silent Features :-
Divns |
Route K.M. |
Total track length in K.M. |
No. of Railway Station |
KGP |
773.899 |
2224.449 |
137 |
ADA |
685.407 |
1463.959 |
97 |
CKP |
808.408 |
2227.455 |
86 |
RNC |
485.312 |
764.220 |
55 |
Total |
2753.026 |
6680.083 |
375 |
Total number of Sanction strength of Security Department
Divn/HQ |
Strength |
HQ/GRC |
281 |
KGP |
2016 |
ADA |
909 |
CKP |
1101 |
RNC |
626 |
ZTI/KGP |
138 |
Total |
5071 |
1) Innovation implemented
A novel & innovative project has been launched in SER w.e.f 18.09.2020 named as “Operation My Saheli” to enhance safety and security of lady passengers. Technological use of social media such as Whatsapp Broadcast group is being made use of to reach out to lady passengers through our dedicated & specially trained young lady RPF officers, while also maintaining the privacy.
2) In addition, the following new equipments under ISS have been installed in No. of stationsdifferent places.
i) X-ray Baggage Scanner-
ii) Night vision device.
iii) CCTV, UVSS
iv) DFMD,HHMD
3) Besides this all division and HQ/GRC are using RSMS, E-Suvidha, HRMS, CCTNS, etc. to use existing man power more efficiently.
Four nos. of Drones have been purchased in April-2020 and distributed to the divisions to cover the railway assets at different places .
Google Sheet is being introduced for seal checking of Parcel Vans of Mail/Express trains where the ground staff will click photos of the seals and send to post where the details will be entered in real time basis. The measure will make monitoring and sharing of seal position enroute, more effective and also rule out fake entries.
Situation report (every two hours) is also updated by all the Posts of SER duly monitored by HQ.
4) As a sequel to putting digital technology to use at grassroot levels, a new venture of digital attendance through Google sheet has been introduced in which daily attendance of whole zone is compiled, which enables and gives a bird’s eye view to monitor staff position.