Howrah–Barddhaman main line
railway route in West Bengal, India
The Howrah–Barddhaman main line is a broad-gauge railway line connecting Howrah and Barddhaman via Bandel. The 107 kilometres (66 mi) railway line operates in Howrah, Hooghly and Purba Barddhaman districts in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is part of the Howrah–Delhi main line and the Kolkata Suburban Railway system.
History
The East Indian Railway Company which was formed on 1 June 1845, planned to construct a line from Howrah to Delhi. After surveys, construction began in 1851.
Howrah station was a tin shed and to reach it from Kolkata one had to cross the Hooghly River in a ferry. On 15 August 1854, the first passenger train in the eastern section was operated up to Hooghly railway station, 39 kilometres (24 mi) away. On 1 February 1855 the first train ran from Howrah to Raniganj, 195 kilometres (121 mi) from Howrah.
Access to Howrah station
A pontoon bridge was built across the Hooghly River in 1874 to provide easy access to Howrah Station, and in 1943 the cantilever Howrah Bridge, later renamed Rabindra Setu, was built.
Other routes
The Sheoraphuli–Tarakeswar branch line was constructed in 1885, and the Howrah–Barddhaman chord line, a shorter link to Barddhaman, was constructed in 1917.
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This entry incorporates text from “Howrah–Barddhaman main line” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.