Sealdah railway station

Sealdah is one of India's major railway termini serving the city of Kolkata. The other main railway stations in the Kolkata metropolitan region are Howrah, Shalimar, Kolkata and Santragachi. Sealdah is one of the busiest railway stations in India[1][2] with a daily passenger footfall of over 1.8 million. It also acts as an important suburban rail terminal. After completion, Kolkata Metro Line 2 will pass through Sealdah.


Sealdah
Express train and passenger train terminal station
Kolkata Suburban Railway Station
Sealdah Railway Station
LocationSealdah, Kolkata, West Bengal
India
Coordinates22°34′04″N 88°22′15″E
Elevation9 metres (30 ft)
Owned byIndian Railways
Operated byEastern Railway
Platforms22
Tracks28
Connections
  • Sealdah
  • Sealdah, NRS, Jagat Cinema
Construction
Structure typeStandard (on ground station)
ParkingAvailable
Bicycle facilitiesAvailable
Disabled accessYes
Other information
StatusFunctioning
Station codeSDAH
Zone(s) Eastern Railway zone
Division(s) Sealdah
History
Opened1862 (1862)
ClosedAll trains are cancelled till 3rd May due to COVID-19
Electrified1960 (1960)
Previous namesEastern Bengal Railway, Assam Bengal Railway
Traffic
Passengersover 1.8 million (per day)
Services
Preceding station   Kolkata Suburban Railway   Following station
TerminusEastern Line
Chord link Line
toward Namkhana
Sealdah SouthTerminus
Location

Sealdah
Location in Kolkata

Sealdah
Location in West Bengal

Sealdah
Location in India

History

Sealdah railway station was started in 1869.[3][4] Before 1978, 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 currently 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
  • 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 5 platforms in North and 9 platforms in main section, the platforms of North sections are 1, 2, 3, 4 & 4A
    • Sealdah main consists of platform no 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9C, 9B, 9A & 9D, one more platform is present beside platform no 9D which is used by only goods trains.
    • The South section consists of Sealdah South terminal, with 7 platforms 10A, 10, 11, 12, 13, 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 Road–Park Circus 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 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 served by DMU trains formerly[5][6] (all other lines run EMU trains). Now the suburban train service is also extended from Krishnanagar to Lalgola,[7] which part was previously served by electric loco-hauled trains only. Sealdah-Dankuni (via Vivekananda Setu) line connects Eastern Railway's Howrah-Bardhaman chord line 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 railway station and Biman Bandar railway station (Dum Dum Airport) is closed and replaced by Line 4 (under construction) of the Kolkata Metro.[8]

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 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
  • Sealdah-Dum Dum-Dakshineswar-Dankuni
  • 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–Nabadwip Dham–Katwa
  • Sealdah–Dum Dum–Barasat–Bongaon
  • Sealdah–Dum Dum–Barasat–Basirhat-Hasnabad
  • Sealdah–Ballygunge–Majherhat–BBD Bag–Kolkata
  • Sealdah–Ballygunge–Majherhat–Budge Budge
  • Sealdah–Ballygunge–Sonarpur–Canning
  • Sealdah–Ballygunge–Sonarpur–Baruipur–Diamond Harbour
  • Sealdah–Ballygunge–Sonarpur–Baruipur–Laxmikantapur–Namkhana

Station facilities

Executive lounge

IRCTC opened the first Executive Lounge at this station, which is 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 at the station. It is built on the first floor of the station, covering around 2,500 sq ft area, having 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-bound passengers.[9][10]

  • The station also have a first class air conditioning waiting room and also resting area with bedding facilities.
  • Google provides RailWire free high-speed Wi-Fi.
  • The station also have many IRCTC food court and restaurants like Haldiram, Jan-Ahaar, mio amore, wow momos and many others.
  • Recently Amazon India launched an Amazon kiosk in the non-ticketing zone, from where passengers can pick up their parcels.
  • The station also has a large reservation ticketing zone where passengers can book their tickets in advance.
  • Sealdah station
  • Outside view of Sealdah station
  • Platform of Sealdah station
  • 12259 Sealdah – New Delhi Duronto Express - Departure from platform 9B

See also

References
  1. The Rainbows of Kolkata. Lulu.com. pp. 51–. ISBN 978-1-4092-3848-5. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  2. "Ten busiest railway stations of India". EducationWorld. 8 February 2019. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  3. "Sealdah History". irfca.org/. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  4. Railway gazette international. Reed Business Pub. 1957. p. 182. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  5. "Narrow Gauge in Nadia".
  6. "Mamata rolls out rly sops for Nadia". The Times of India, 8 January 2010. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
  7. "EMU Service starts upto Lalgola".
  8. "Services End on Kolkata's Circular Railway".
  9. "Sealdah station gets West Bengal's first Executive Lounge". The Times of India. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  10. Nishat Nizami. "IRCTC executive lounge for passengers at Sealdah station from Poila Baishakh". The Statesman. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
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