Madhya Pradesh Quiz: Transport and Tourism of Madhya Pradesh

The West Central Railway, created in 2003 when the new railway zones were carved out, has its headquarters at Jabalpur and works through three divisions, Jabalpur, Bhopal and Kota, so Madhya Pradesh is the only state that holds both the zone office and one of its divisions in the same…

Itarsi, in Narmadapuram district, is where the Delhi to Chennai trunk line crosses the routes running east towards Jabalpur and west towards Khandwa and Mumbai, so a very large share of the long distance trains of central India pass through it and change direction, engine or crew there.

The airport of Indore is named after Devi Ahilyabai Holkar, the Holkar queen who ruled from Maheshwar, and it handles more passengers than any other airport of the state, in keeping with Indore’s place as the commercial capital.

The temples built by the Chandela kings at Khajuraho in Chhatarpur district were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1986, the earliest of the three sites of Madhya Pradesh to be listed, and the Kandariya Mahadeva temple is the largest of the group.

Bhimbetka lies in the Vindhya hills in Raisen district, not far from Bhopal, and its natural shelters carry paintings made over thousands of years, from hunting scenes of the Stone Age to later figures of horses and riders.

Pachmarhi, in the Satpura range in Narmadapuram district, is the only hill station of the state and is called the queen of the Satpura; the forest around it is the Satpura National Park and Tiger Reserve, and the whole area forms a biosphere reserve.

Dhupgarh is a peak beside Pachmarhi in the Satpura, and at a little over thirteen hundred metres it is the highest point of Madhya Pradesh; visitors climb it for the view of the sunset across the ranges.

The tomb of the Malwa ruler Hoshang Shah at Mandu, the old Mandavgarh in Dhar district, is counted as the first building in India raised in marble, and later builders of marble monuments are said to have studied it.

Mahakaleshwar stands at Ujjain on the bank of the Shipra, where the bhasma aarti is performed with ash, and Omkareshwar stands on the island of Mandhata in the Narmada in Khandwa district, where the 108 foot Statue of Oneness of Adi Shankaracharya was unveiled in 2023.

The station at Bhopal that was called Habibganj was rebuilt with private participation, the first station in the country to be developed in that way, and it was renamed after Rani Kamlapati, the Gond queen connected with the history of Bhopal.

At Bhedaghat near Jabalpur the Narmada runs in a narrow gorge between cliffs of marble, and a short distance upstream it drops as the Dhuandhar falls, the smoke cascade, so named for the spray thrown up by the fall.