Sealdah–Bangaon line


The Sealdah–Bangaon line connects Sealdah and Bangaon in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is connected to the Sealdah–Ranaghat line at Dum Dum Junction, the Barasat–Hasnabad line at Barasat Junction and the Bangaon–Ranaghat line at Bangaon Junction. This line has change-over facilities with both the Kolkata Metro and the Kolkata Circular Railway at Dum Dum Junction and with the Kolkata Metro at Dum Dum Cantonment. It is part of the Kolkata Suburban Railway system and is under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Railway.

History

The main line of the Eastern Bengal Railway, from Sealdah to Ranaghat, was opened way back in the year 1862. It was then extended during the same year up to Kushtia, which is now located in Bangladesh.In 1882–84, the Bengal Central Railway Company was commissioned to construct two lines: one from Dum Dum to Khulna, now in Bangladesh, via Bangaon; and the other linking Ranaghat and Bangaon. The line was converted into a -wide broad gauge between 1957 and 1962. It was merged with Eastern Bengal Railway in 1903.

Electrification

The Sealah-Ashoknagar sector was electrified in 1963–64. The remaining line was electrified in the 1970s.

Passengers

Line-wise or route-wise passenger data is not available, but Sealdah Station handles 1.5 million passengers arriving or departing in 704 trains daily, and a good proportion of that uses this line, as it is the main line out of the station.

Car shed

There is a large EMU car shed beside the Narkeldanga Canal, near Sealdah, which has a lot of space to accommodate locomotives. Barasat also has an EMU car shed which forms a part of that station's overall structure, having been designed to accommodate trains for rail engine and car maintenance.

Tracks

The Sealdah-Bangaon Line presently has two tracks; though at some stations, an additional platform and track has been built to originate and halt certain local trains.

Border

Though Bangaon is the last station on this particular route, the line extends up to the Indo-Bangladesh border and beyond that.
Petrapole, which is pn the Indian side of the international border, has a land customs station and handles about more than half of the 4 billion dollar trade between India and Bangladesh. With the remote possibility of improvements in the extremely narrow roads leading to the Indo-Bangladesh border, because of land acquisition problems, the principal focus is now on improving the railway system.

Trains

The only and the most important train from that uses this track is the Bandhan Express which runs from Kolkata to Dhaka. Apart from that a lot of local trains ply on this route which are:
The railway stations on this route are:
Station NoRailway Station
1Sealdah
2Bidhannagar Road
3Dum Dum Junction
4Dum Dum Cantonment
5Durganagar
6Birati
7Bisharpara Kodaliya
8New Barrackpur
9Madhyamgram
10Hridaypur
11Barasat Junction
12Bamangachhi
13Duttapukur
14Bira
15Guma
16Ashoknagar Road
17Habra
18Sanhati Halt
19Machlandapur
20Gobardanga
21Thakurnagar
22Chandpara
23Bibhuti Bhushan Halt
24Bangaon Junction

Gallery