One or two days is enough for Kharagpur. Spend a day between the junction, Gole Bazar and the IIT campus, with Hijli Shaheed Bhavan and its museum. Add a second day for Naya village in Pingla, where patachitra painters sing their scrolls, or for Medinipur town nearby.

No. Kharagpur held the record for many years, but Gorakhpur overtook it in 2013, and Hubballi now has the longest. At about 1,072 m, Kharagpur's platform ranks around fourth in the world, after Hubballi, Gorakhpur and Kollam. Platforms 1 and 3 still form one continuous run.

No, they are two separate towns about 12 km apart in Paschim Medinipur district. Midnapore, also called Medinipur, is the district headquarters, while Kharagpur is the bigger railway and IIT town. A shared development authority plans the two together, and buses and trains link them.