For the underground railway station, see Sealdah metro station.
Sealdah railway station is one of India's major railway terminals serving the city of Kolkata. It is the second largest railway station in India and West Bengal in terms of platforms, tracks and overall daily passenger holding capacity. It is one of the five large railway stations serving the Kolkata metropolitan area, the others being Howrah, Shalimar, Kolkata and Santragachi. Over 1.5 million passengers use the station on a daily basis. It is an important suburban rail terminal of Kolkata Suburban Railway. Passengers can use the Sealdah metro station to transfer to the Green line of Kolkata Metro.
History
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Old view of Sealdah Railway Station
The origins of Sealdah Station can be traced back to the mid-19th century when the British colonial administration initiated the construction of railways in India. The station was named after Frederick William Stevens, the then Governor-General of British India, who held the title of Lord Sealdah. Sealdah Station was officially opened to the public on 2 December 1862, as part of the Eastern Bengal Railway network from Calcutta to Kushtia. At the Calcutta end there was a tin-roofed station room. Sealdah railway station had a proper Station Building in 1869, designed by Mr Walter Glanville. The present Sealdah-Ranaghat line was a part of the Sealdah-Kushtia line and was subsequently extended to Goalundo Ghat.
Eastern Bengal Railway Company was registered in 1857 to establish railroad connection between Calcutta and Eastern part of undivided Bengal beyond Ganges(Padma). The first section was completed in January 1862 from Calcutta to Champahati. By May 1862 this extended to Port Canning. Ranaghat was connected in September 1862. Initially, the company was known as Eastern Bengal Guaranteed Railway and ran its trains on guaranteed lines. The guaranteed lines were constructed by companies formed in England. In 1862, the station was well established with 4 platforms
The tram terminus was located at Sealdah Station before the year 1978 from where the concept of horse tram carriage started. There was a tram terminus at Sealdah station. Trams departed from here towards Rajabazar, Howrah Station, Calcutta 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 current route 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, Park Circus–Burrabazar and other services pass through Sealdah. Currently, a car parking exists in place of the old tram terminus.
Operations
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There are three station terminals at Sealdah: "Sealdah North", "Sealdah Main" and "Sealdah South":
- The "North" terminal consists of platforms 1 to 5
- The "Main" terminal consists of platforms 6 to 14. One more platform is present beside platform no 14 which is used only by goods trains and high capacity parcel vans.
- The "South" terminal consists of platforms 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 & 21.
The north and south sections have a separate set of emerging tracks. The north and south sections are connected by two links: Dumdum–Majherhat link (popularly circular rail) and Bidhannagar Road–Park Circus link (extension of circular rail). These two links were constructed to quickly travel between the two sections, avoiding Sealdah.
Sealdah North acts as the suburban train terminal for the main division. The main division of Sealdah north operates trains plying between Kolkata and Hasnabad, Bandel, Gede, Ranaghat, Shantipur, Krishnanagar, Berhampore, Lalgola, Dankuni, Katwa, Bardhaman, Kanchrapara, Barrackpore, 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 narrow-gauge line further continued to Nabadwip Ghat and was formerly served by DMU trains (all other lines run EMU trains). Now the suburban train service is also extended from Krishnanagar to Lalgola, which part was previously served by electric loco-hauled trains only. Sealdah–Dankuni (via Vivekananda Setu) line connects Eastern Railway's Howrah–Bardhaman chord at Bally Halt (on a viaduct atop Bally station) and Dankuni. Naihati–Bandel (via Sampreeti Bridge) line connects Eastern Railway's Howrah–Bardhaman main line at Bandel Jn.
Now the poorly-patronized branch line between Dum Dum Cantonment and Biman Bandar (serving Dum Dum Airport) is closed and replaced by Line 4 (under construction) of the Kolkata Metro.
Sealdah Main is the mail/express terminal for long-distance trains to northern, north-western, north-eastern and 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 Budge Budge, Canning, Diamond Harbour and Namkhana.
There is also an EMU carshed at Sealdah (Narkeldanga). Other EMU carsheds are at Barasat and Sonarpur. A diesel shunter loco shed is also situated at adjacent Beliaghata. A rail coach factory is set to come up at Halishahar-Kanchrapara (Bijpur) region in North 24 Parganas.
Before partition in 1947 of India, trains used to run up to present day Bangladesh along Gede line and Bangaon line. Now Gede line is used by Maitree Express up to Dhaka and Bangaon line is used by Bandhan Express up to Khulna.
Lines
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- Sealdah–Dum Dum–Baranagar–Dakshineswar–Rajchandrapur–Baltikuri–Andul–Kharagpur
- Sealdah–Dum Dum–Baranagar–Dakshineswar–Dankuni–Barddhaman
- Sealdah–Dum Dum–Naihati–Kalyani–Kalyani Simanta
- Sealdah–Dum Dum–Naihati–Kalyani–Ranaghat–Krishnanagar–Berhampore–Lalgola
- Sealdah–Dum Dum–Naihati–Kalyani–Ranaghat–Kalinarayanpur–Krishnanagar
- Sealdah–Dum Dum–Naihati–Kalyani–Ranaghat–Kalinarayanpur–Shantipur
- Krishnanagar–Dignagar–Shantipur
- Sealdah–Dum Dum–Naihati–Kalyani–Ranaghat–Gede
- Sealdah–Dum Dum–Naihati–Bandel–Barddhaman
- Sealdah–Dum Dum–Naihati–Bandel–Ambika Kalna–Nabadwip Dham–Katwa
- Sealdah–Dum Dum–Barasat–Bongaon
- Sealdah–Dum Dum–Barasat–Basirhat–Hasnabad
- Ranaghat–Majhergram–Bongaon
- Sealdah–Ballygunge–Majerhat–BBD Bag–Kolkata
- Sealdah–Ballygunge–Majerhat–Budge Budge
- Sealdah–Ballygunge–Jadavpur–New Garia–Sonarpur–Champahati–Ghutiari Sharif–Canning
- Sealdah–Ballygunge–Jadavpur–New Garia–Sonarpur–Baruipur–Magrahat–Diamond Harbour
- Sealdah–Ballygunge–Jadavpur–New Garia–Sonarpur–Baruipur–Jaynagar Majilpur–Lakshmikantapur–Kakdwip–Namkhana
Station facilities
Executive lounge
IRCTC opened the first executive lounge at this station, the first in any of the main stations in the state of West Bengal. In 2019, on the occasion of Bengali New Year, the lounge was opened. It covers around 2,500 sq ft area, and has free Wi-Fi, showers, foods, newspapers, TV, cloak room facilities available. Though on the first floor, it is next to the elevator to make it accessible to wheelchair users.
- The station has a first class air conditioning waiting room and a resting area with bedding facilities.
- Google provides RailWire free high-speed Wi-Fi.
- The station also has many IRCTC food court and restaurants including Haldiram, Jan-Ahaar, Mio Amore and Wow Momos.
- Amazon India has launched an Amazon kiosk in the non-ticketing zone, where passengers can pick up their parcels.
- The station has a large reservation ticketing zone where passengers can book their tickets in advance.
Sealdah Metro Station
Sealdah metro station is an operational station on Line 2 (Green Line) of the Kolkata Metro, located in Sealdah, Kolkata. The underground station adjoins with the Sealdah railway station of the Indian Railways on its eastern side.
Gallery
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Old view of Sealdah Railway Station
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Exterior of Sealdah station
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Platform of Sealdah station
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12259 Sealdah–New Delhi Duronto Express – departure from platform 9B
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On approach to Sealdah
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Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) office in Sealdah railway station
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Sealdah metro station
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Night view of the Station
_office_in_Sealdah_railway_station_01.jpg)
Important trains
- Sealdah Rajdhani
- Darjeeling Mail
- Sealdah-New Alipurduar Padatik Superfast Express
- Sealdah–Puri Duronto Express
- Sealdah Bikaner Duronto Express
See also
- Kolkata Metro
- Kolkata
- Kolkata Suburban Railway
- List of Kolkata Suburban Railway stations
- Trams in Kolkata
References
- "SDAH/Sealdah".
- "LIST OF STATIONS OF SEALDAH DIVISION".
- "History of Sealdah Station". 23 June 2020.
- "SEALDAH STATION" (PDF).
- "SEALDAH STATION" (PDF). Indian Railways. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 January 2023. Retrieved 31 January 2023.
- "Sealdah History". irfca.org/. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
- Railway gazette international. Reed Business Pub. 1957. p. 182. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
- "Narrow Gauge in Nadia".
- "Mamata rolls out rly sops for Nadia". The Times of India. 8 January 2010. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
- "EMU Service starts upto Lalgola". 16 March 2017.
- "Services End on Kolkata's Circular Railway".
- "Sealdah station gets West Bengal's first Executive Lounge". The Times of India. 16 April 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
- Nishat Nizami (29 March 2019). "IRCTC executive lounge for passengers at Sealdah station from Poila Baishakh". The Statesman. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
External links
- Sealdah railway station at the India Rail Info
- Eastern Railways website
| Railway stations in West Bengal | |
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| Eastern Railway |
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| South Eastern Railway | |
| North East Frontier Railway |
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| Suburban rail and urban transit | |
| Stations on the Eastern line of the Kolkata Suburban Railway | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Howrah Section |
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| Sealdah Section |
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| Stations on the Chord link line of the Kolkata Suburban Railway | |
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| Main line | |
| Branch line | |
| Stations on the Sealdah South section of the Kolkata Suburban Railway | |
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| Sealdah–Diamond Harbour line |
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| Budge Budge branch line | |
| Canning branch line | |
| Namkhana branch line | |
| Major branch junctions and termini marked in bold | |