Jamshedpur is the largest city in the state of Jharkhand and is one of the ‘Industrial Cities’ of India, being known by many simply as “The Steel City”. Jamshedpur is completely maintained by Tata Steel for the most part. Tata Steel is responsible for the infrastructure as well the public services offered in most parts of the city.
One can reach to this city by various means as mentioned below :
By rail – The Railway Station at Jamshedpur is called Tatanagar Junction. It is on the South Eastern Railway (Howrah-Mumbai line). It is connected to Ranchi and Barkakhana, Asansol on the Howrah-Delhi line via Purulia and Adra, and Gua via Noamundi and Barajamda. It is the second busiest station of South Eastern Railway after Howrah station as it is connected directly to all the major cities of India, viz., Dhanbad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Alappuzha, Amritsar, Jabalpur, Patna, Nagpur, Kanpur, Ranchi, Pune, Jammu, Vishakapatnam, Guwahati, Bhubaneshwar etc. Kolkata and Patna are linked with super fast trains. The other railway stations of the city are Adityapur, Gamharia, Salgajhari, Kandra and Govindpur.
There is a ticketing office which opens at 8AM and opens till 8PM (except Sundays 2PM) for you to book your train tickets all over India. There are also current booking train counters for current bookings within the city from where tickets can be booked for all over India.
There are ATMs of SBI and UTI on the station. Facilities like eating rooms,cobbler, cafe, rest rooms, waiting rooms are all available. There is no prepaid booth for autos at the Tatanagar station. However autos are available 24X7. One must be prepared to bargain hard.
By bus – Regular bus services are available from Jamshedpur to Ranchi (140 km), Patna, Gaya, Kolkata (270 km), Hazaribag, Aurangabad, Patna, Gaya, Jahanabad, Gorakhpur, Ballia, Raxaul, Hazaribagh, Bokaro etc.
By road – Jamshedpur is connected by road with most of the major cities in India. NH 32 connects Jamshedpur to Govindpur on NH 2 (Kolkata-Delhi) via Chandil, Chas and Dhanbad. NH 33 connects Chandil to Barhi on NH 2 (Kolkata-Delhi) via Bundu, Ranchi, Ramgarh and Hazaribagh and also in the opposite direction to Baharagora on NH 6 (Kolkata-Western India) via Mahulia. Kolkata is 270 km from Jamshedpur via Baharagora and Kharagpur. Ranchi is 140 km from Jamshedpur. The highyway from Ranchi is doubled laned but without a divider. Chandil is about 35 km from Jamshedpur.
By air – Sonari Airport is a small airport serving the city at present. It is spread over a 25 acre area in the Sonari area of the city. The airport is primarily used for bringing in chartered planes of TATA group.
A few airlines that started operations from Jamshedpur in 2007 were forced to withdraw due to unviable operations following conversion of the airport from Category 3C to 2C which means that runway length will be shorter and that no more than 45 passengers can be accommodated on a flight. Kingfisher and MDLR airlines had flights from the airport till November 2009. From 16 August 2010, airlines services were resumed by Deccan Charters with three daily flights to Kolkata.
The airport has a flight training school and simulator center for commercial pilots called Alchemist Aviation (formerly known as Tatanagar Aviation). The Jamshedpur Co-operative Flying Club was started by the Tata Sons group chairman Mr. Ratan Tata who is a pilot himself. The nearest commercial airports are Kolkata and Ranchi.
Tata Steel had in proposed to set up a 600-acre (2.4 km2) greenfield airport on the outskirts of Jamshedpur in Adityapur-Seraikella region. In June 2011 Tata Steel and TRIL entered formally into a joint venture for building the airport. The new airport will be of international standard with a 10,000 ft runway, it will have the capacity to allow commercial airliners such as the Airbus A320 to land and take off which was not possible from the present airport. As of Dec 2012, Land acquisition process has started for the Airport. Out of 528 acres of required land 90% is owned by Govt. whereas rest is private land. The company is at present facing opposition in the acquisition process from the local villagers.
City transport – For local transport, the commuters have the options of bus and auto-rickshaw. Auto rickshaws are the popular mode of local commuting. Jamshedpur City Bus Service is run by JNNURM.It was launched in March 2009 adding to the existing city bus fleet. There are 2 bus depots for city bus services that are Agrico, Baridih.
Each bus is equipped with GPS, electronic sign boards and computerized vending machines. As Jamshedpur is a participating city in centres 63 city urban development scheme JNNURM the state government has introduced around 50 LFB buses under the scheme.
Private Mini Buses also operate in the city areas. There are around 250 such buses.
