Sealdah–Bangaon line

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.[1] 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.[1] The line was converted into a 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in)-wide broad gauge between 1957 and 1962.[2][3] It was merged with Eastern Bengal Railway in 1903.[4]

The Sealah–Ashoknagar sector was electrified in 1963–64.[5] The remaining line was electrified in the 1970s.

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 (including EMU locals), and a good proportion of that uses this line, as it is the main line out of the station.[6]

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.[7]

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.

Though Bangaon is the last station on this particular route, the line extends up to the Indo-Bangladesh border and beyond that.[8][9]

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.[10]

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:[11][12]

• The Sealdah–Bangaon Local
• The Sealdah–Thakurnagar Local
• The Sealdah–Gobardanga Local
• The Sealdah–Habra Local
• The Sealdah–Duttapukur Local
• The Sealdah–Barasat Local
• The Sealdah–Madhyamgram Local
• The Sealdah–Dum Dum Cantonment Local
• The Sealdah–Hasnabad Local
• The Sealdah–Basirhat Local

The railway stations on this route are:

• 
  Main Entrance of the Sealdah railway station
• 
  Dum Dum Junction railway station platform board
• 
  Bird's eye view of Birati railway station
• 
  Platform of Madhyamgram railway station
• 
  Bird's eye view of Barasat Junction railway station
• 
  Main Entrance of Barasat Junction railway station
• 
  Habra railway station platform board
• 
  Platform of Gobardanga railway station
• 
  Thakurnagar railway station platform board
• 
  Platforms of Bangaon railway station
• 
  Main Entrance of the Bangaon railway station
• 
  Petrapole railway station

• Kolkata/Northern fringes travel guide from Wikivoyage

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