Cooch Behar State Railway

Cooch Behar State Railway
Industry Railways
Founded 1894
Headquarters Cooch Behar, India
Area served
 Koch Bihar
Services Rail transport

The Cooch Behar State Railway was a 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) narrow gauge railway opened in 1894 in the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas, presently Cooch Behar district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It was converted to 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) metre gauge in 1910.

History

Nripendra Narayan, the Maharaja of Cooch Behar, established Cooch Behar State Railway in 1893-98.[1]

After some deliberations and discussions with the British authorities about their plans, it was decided in 1891-92 to build a 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) wide narrow gauge railway from the southern bank of the Torsa opposite Cooch Behar town to Gitaldaha, a station on the tracks of Eastern Bengal Railway connecting Dhubri with Lalmonirhat, now in Bangladesh. The line was constructed with the following stations: Torsa, Dewanhat, Chawrahat, Gitaldaha and Gitaldaha Ghat. It was opened for goods traffic from 15 September 1893 and for passenger traffic from 1 March 1894.[1]

Cooch Behar town was connected after a bridge was built on the Torsa and the line was extended to Alipurduar, Buxa and Jainti near the India-Bhutan border. The complete line measuring 53.5 miles was opened in 1901. It was converted to 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) wide metre gauge in 1910. The railway system was operated by Eastern Bengal Railway.[1][2][3] As of 1932, only two trains ran on the route – one in the morning and the other in the evening.[1] In early 1950s, the system was amalgamated with Indian Railways as a part of North Eastern Railway (now North East Frontier Railway).[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "The Cooch Behar State Railways (1903)". "The Cooch Behar state and its land revenue settlements" by H. N. Chaudhuri, Cooch Behar State Press, 1903 – Review by R Sivaramakrishnan. IRFCA. Retrieved 2013-02-19.
  2. ↑ "Cooch Behar Railway". fibis. Retrieved 2013-02-19.
  3. ↑ "IR History: Part III (1900-1947)". IRFCA. Retrieved 2013-02-19.
  4. ↑ Banerjee, Ajai. "Zonal Reorganization of IR Since Independence". IRFCA. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
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