Sealdah railway station

History

Sealdah Railway station was started in 1869. Before 1978, there was a tram terminus at Sealdah station. Trams departed from here towards Rajabazar, Howrah Station, High Court, Dalhousie Square, Park Circus and Dharmatala. The first horse tram service of Kolkata was also started from Sealdah to Armenian Ghat, following the currently route 13, 14 & 16 between Lebutala & Dalhousie Square. The Sealdah-Lebutala & Dalhousie Square-Armenian Ghat (later extended to High Court) stretch is now closed. That terminus was demolished in 1978 also with the Sealdah-Lebutala tram track stretched through Boubazar Street for construction of the Sealdah flyover. Now tram services between Rajabazar-Esplanade, Parkcircus-Burrabazar and other services pass through Sealdah. Currently, a car parking exists in place of the old tram terminus.

Operations

There are three station terminals at Sealdah: Sealdah North, Sealdah Main and Sealdah South. The North section consists of Sealdah North and Sealdah Main buildings. It has 13 platforms numbering 1 to 4, 4A (Sealdah North), and 5 to 9C, 9A & 9B (Sealdah Main). The South section consists of Sealdah South terminal, with 7 platforms (10A, 10-14,14A). The north and south sections have separate set of emerging tracks. The north and south section is connected by two links, one is Dumdum-Majherhat link (popularly circular rail), and other is Bidhannagar-Parkcircus link (extension of circular rail). These two links were constructed to quickly travel between the two sections avoiding Sealdah.

For the financial department,There are DRM's,Sr.DFM's and ADFM's to look over.Sealdah North acts as the suburban train terminal for 2 divisions: the main division and the Bongaon division. The main division of Sealdah north operates trains plying between Kolkata and Bandel, Gede, Ranaghat, Shantipur, Krishnanagar, Baharampur, Lalgola, Dankuni, Kalyani , Kalyani Simanta and others. A narrow gauge line earlier used to connect Shantipur and Krishnanagar but now it has been replaced with broad gauge. This line continues to Nabadwip Ghat. These narrow gauge lines are served by DMU trains (all other lines run EMU trains). There is a plan to extend the suburban train service from Krishnanagar to Plassey, which is currently served by electric loco hauled trains. Dankuni line connects Eastern Railway's Howrah line at Bali and Dankuni. Bandel line connects Eastern Railway's Howrah line at Bandel.

The Bongaon division handles trains for Kolkata Airport, Bangaon, Hasnabad and others. Bangaon and Ranaghat are also connected.

Sealdah Main is the mail/express terminal for long distance trains to northern, north-western, north-eastern & eastern India, through Dankuni line and Bandel line. Krishnanagar line is also serving long distance intrastate trains.

The South section, consisting of Sealdah South terminal, acts as the terminal for local trains plying between Kolkata and Diamond Harbour-Budgebudge, Canning, and Namkhana.

There is also an EMU carshed at Sealdah (Narkeldanga). Other EMU carsheds are at Barasat & Sonarpur. A diesel shunter loco shed is also situated at adjacent Beliaghata. A rail coach factory is set to come up at Halishahar.

Before partition in 1947 of India, Gede line and Bangaon line were continued to present day Bangladesh.