Sealdah railway station

Sealdah (station code:SDAH) is one of India's major railway terminals serving the city of Kolkata. The other main railway stations in the Kolkata metropolitan region are , , and Santragachi. Sealdah Railway station is the busiest railway stations in India in terms of daily passenger's footfall. Sealdah has a daily passenger footfall of over 1.2 million. It is an important suburban rail terminal. Kolkata Metro Line 2 passes through Sealdah with the new Sealdah 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, 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

* 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 five platforms in North and 9 platforms in the main section. The platforms of North sections are 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5.
** Sealdah main consists of platform no 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 & 14. One more platform is present beside platform no 14 which is used only by goods trains and high capacity parcel vans.
** The South section consists of Sealdah South terminal, with seven 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.

For the financial department, there are DRMs Sr.DFMs and ADFMs to look over. 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, , 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 and Biman Bandar railway station ( 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

* 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–Nabadwip Dham–Katwa
* Sealdah–Dum Dum–Barasat–Bongaon
* Sealdah–Dum Dum–Barasat–Basirhat–Hasnabad
* Ranaghat–Majhergram–Bongaon
* Sealdah–Ballygunge–Majherhat–BBD Bag–Kolkata
* Sealdah–Ballygunge–Majherhat–Budge Budge–Pujali
* 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, 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 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

File:SEALDAH STATION.jpg, Sealdah station
File:Sealdah Station Outside.jpg, Exterior of Sealdah station
File:Sealdah Platform.JPG, Platform of Sealdah station
File:12259 Sealdah Duronto Express - Departure from platform 9B.jpg, 12259 Sealdah–New Delhi Duronto Express – departure from platform 9B
File:On approach to Sealdah.jpg, On approach to Sealdah
File:Sealdah Station.jpg
File:Sealdah Railway Station's one of the oldest platform.jpg
File:A train departing from Sealdah Station.jpg
File:Different Trains Halt (like Passenger Train, Freight Train) at Sealdah Station.jpg
File:Inside the Sealdah Station.jpg

See also

* Kolkata Metro
*
* Kolkata Suburban Railway
* List of Kolkata Suburban Railway stations
* Trams in Kolkata

References

External links

*

Eastern Railways website

{{Kolkata Suburban Railway, Sealdah South

1869 establishments in India
Indian Railway A1 Category Stations
Kolkata Suburban Railway stations
Railway junction stations in West Bengal
Railway stations in Kolkata
Railway stations opened in 1869
Sealdah railway division