Darjeeling Mail
The Darjeeling Mail is one of the legendary trains in the eastern region of India that has been running from pre-independence days and is still in operation. It connects to the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway at New Jalpaiguri in Siliguri. This is a major train for Kolkata–Siliguri route. It is also the first train to run with AC electric loco Wap-7 in Sealdah to New-Jalpaiguri stretch.[1]
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Overview | |||||
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Service type | Superfast | ||||
First service | 1 January 1878 | ||||
Current operator(s) | Eastern Railways | ||||
Route | |||||
Start | Sealdah (SDAH) | ||||
Stops | 4 | ||||
End | New Jalpaiguri (NJP) | ||||
Distance travelled | 567 km (352 mi) | ||||
Service frequency | Daily | ||||
Train number(s) | 12343 / 12344 | ||||
On-board services | |||||
Class(es) | AC 1st (1), AC 2nd (2), AC 3rd (7), Sleeper (9), General (2), Military(1) | ||||
Catering facilities | No pantry car available | ||||
Technical | |||||
Rolling stock | LHB coaches | ||||
Track gauge | 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) | ||||
Operating speed | Average speed- 110 km/h. | ||||
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1. The left side of a line is the post-partition route, Whereas, the right side of the line is the pre-partition route as it stands today. 2. The Siliguri/New Jalpaiguri–Haldibari Line is common to both the old and new routes. |
History
Run via East Bengal
During the British period all connections to North Bengal were through East Bengal.
From 1878, the railway route from Kolkata, then called Calcutta, to Siliguri was in two laps. The first lap was a 185 km journey along the Eastern Bengal State Railway from Calcutta Station (later renamed Sealdah) to Damookdeah Ghat on the southern bank of the Padma River. The passengers would then avail a ferry across the river. The second lap of the journey was a 336 km metre-gauge line of the North Bengal Railway that linked Saraghat on the northern bank of the Padma to Siliguri.[2]
Later the 1.8 km-long Hardinge Bridge across the Padma came up in 1912.[3] In 1926 the metre-gauge section north of the bridge was converted to broad gauge, and so the entire Calcutta – Siliguri route became broad-gauge.[2] The route thus roughly ran: Sealdah–Ranaghat–Bheramara–Hardinge Bridge–Iswardi–Santahar–Hili–Parabtipur–Nilphamari–Haldibari–Jalpaiguri–Siliguri.
The Darjeeling Mail ran on this route in pre-partition days. Even after the partition of India it ran on this route for some years.[4][5]
Ferry across Ganges (Post-partition)
With the partition of India in 1947, the major hurdle in connecting Kolkata and Siliguri was that there was no bridge across the Ganges in West Bengal or Bihar. A generally acceptable route to Siliguri was via Sahibganj loop to Sakrigali ghat, then across the Ganges by ferry to Manihari Ghat on the other side, then to Kishanganj via Katihar and Barsoi and finally through narrow gauge to Siliguri.[6] In 1949 Kishanganj–Siliguri section too was converted to metre gauge, thus making the entire route an uni-gauge one.[2]
Run via Farakka Barrage
In the early 1960s, when Farakka Barrage was being constructed, a more radical change was made. Indian Railways created a new broad-gauge rail link from Kolkata, and on a greenfield site south of Siliguri Town built an entirely new broad-gauge junction, New Jalpaiguri.[2]
The 2,240 metres (7,350 ft) long Farakka Barrage carries a rail-cum-road bridge across the Ganges. The rail bridge was thrown open to the public in 1971, thereby linking the Barharwa–Azimganj–Katwa loop to Malda Town, New Jalpaiguri and other railway stations in North Bengal.[7][8] Since then Darjeeling Mail has been using the Howrah–New Jalpaiguri line.
According to latest report then there was a train running between Sealdah and Sakrigali Ghat named North Bengal Express. After opening of Farakka Barrage the Government of India renamed North Bengal Express as Darjeeling Mail and extend it up to New Jalpaiguri. It is also being called "new" Darjeeling Mail by the minister clearly referring to present day 12343 Darjeeling Mail aka "renamed" Sealdah–Sakrigali Ghat North Bengal Express which has no connection with the old Calcutta–Siliguri Darjeeling Mail .
Route and halts
The important halts of the train are:
- Sealdah (Starts)
- Barddhaman Junction (3 minutes)
- Bolpur Shantiniketan (3 minutes)
- Malda Town (10 minutes)
- Kishanganj (2 minutes)
- New Jalpaiguri Junction (Ends)
Operation
12343 – Starts from Sealdah Daily at 22:05 Hrs IST from Platform 9B and reaches Platform 1 or 3 of New Jalpaiguri Junction next day at 8:15 Hrs IST
12344 – Starts form New Jalpaiguri Junction at 20:00 Hrs IST and reach Sealdah at 6:00 Hrs IST
Coach composition
This train has 24 LHB coaches[9]
EOG/SLR | PC | MIL | H | A | HA | B | AB | G | K | E | C | S | D | GEN/UR |
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Generator cum luggage van | Pantry car or Hot buffet car | Military coach | First AC (1A) | Second AC (2A) | First AC cum Second AC | Third AC (3A) | Third AC cum Second AC | Third AC economy (3E) | Anubhuti coach (K) | Executive chair car (EC) | AC Chair car (CC) | Sleeper class (SL) | Second seating (2S) | General or Unreserved |
Loco and other service coach | ||||||||||||||
AC coach | ||||||||||||||
Non-AC coach |
Sealdah to New Jalpaiguri
Loco | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
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SLR | S1 | B1 | A1 | A2 | B2 | B3 | B4 | B5 | B6 | B7 | H1 | S2 | S3 | S4 | S5 | S6 | S7 | S8 | S9 | GEN | GEN | MIL | SLR |
New Jalpaiguri to Sealdah
Loco | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
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SLR | MIL | GEN | GEN | S9 | S8 | S7 | S6 | S5 | S4 | S3 | S2 | H1 | B7 | B6 | B5 | B4 | B3 | B2 | A1 | A2 | B1 | S1 | SLR |
Gallery
- Darjeeling Mail – AC 3 tier
- Darjeeling Mail – Sleeper Class
See also
Other trains on the Kolkata–New Jalpaiguri sector
- 12041/42 New Jalpaiguri–Howrah Shatabdi Express
- 22309/10 Howrah–New Jalpaiguri AC Express
- 12377/78 Padatik Express
- 12343/44 Darjeeling Mail
- 15959/60 Kamrup Express
- 13175/76 Kanchenjunga Express
- 12345/46 Saraighat Express
- 15721/22 New Jalpaiguri–Digha Express
- 12517/18 Kolkata–Guwahati Garib Rath Express
- 12525/26 Dibrugarh–Kolkata Superfast Express
- 13141/42 Teesta Torsha Express
- 13147/48 Uttar Banga Express
- 12503/04 Bangalore Cantonment–Agartala Humsafar Express
- 13181/82 Silghat Town–Kolkata Express
- 22511/12 Lokmanya Tilak Terminus–Kamakhya Karmabhoomi Express
- 15643/44 Puri–Kamakhya Weekly Express (via Howrah)
- 12363/64 Kolkata–Haldibari Intercity Express
- 12509/10 Guwahati–Bengaluru Cantt. Superfast Express
- 12507/08 Thiruvananthapuram–Silchar Superfast Express
- 12513/14 Guwahati–Secunderabad Express
References
- PATRANABIS, SREERUP. "12343/Darjeeling Mail (PT) - Sealdah to New Jalpaiguri ER/Eastern Zone - Railway Enquiry". India Rail Info. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
- "India: the complex history of the junctions at Siliguri and New Jalpaiguri". IRFCA. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
- Chowdhury, Sifatul Quader (2012). "Hardinge Bridge". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
- Joydeep Dutta and Harsh Vardhan. "Trains of Fame and Locos with a Name, part 2". IRFCA. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
- "Geography – International". IRFCA. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
- "my school i wish". Madhyamgram Re-visited after 15 years. Retrieved 23 January 2011.
- Salman, Salman M. A.; Uprety, Kishor (2002). Conflict and cooperation on South Asia's international rivers: a legal perspective. World Bank Publications. pp. 135–136. ISBN 978-0-8213-5352-3. Retrieved 5 July 2011.
- Saxena, R. P. "Indian Railway History timeline". Archived from the original on 14 July 2012. Retrieved 20 November 2011.
- PATRANABIS, SREERUP. "12343/Darjeeling Mail (PT) - Sealdah to New Jalpaiguri ER/Eastern Zone - Railway Enquiry". India Rail Info. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
External links
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