Cooch Behar railway station (also referred to as Old Cooch Behar railway station) serves

Cooch Behar Cooch Behar (), also known as Koch Bihar, is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal and it stands on bank of the Torsa river. The city is the headquarters of the Cooch Behar district. During the British Raj, Cooch Behar was the seat of the ...

Cooch Behar district Cooch Behar district (), also known as Koch Bihar district, is one of the List of districts of West Bengal, 23 districts of the state of West Bengal in India. The district is the part of Jalpaiguri division, Jalpaiguri Division. Cooch Behar ci ...

in the Indian state of West Bengal.

History

Cooch Behar State Railway built a -wide

narrow-gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter cur ...

from the southern bank of the

Torsa Torsa (occasionally Torsay) is one of the Slate Islands in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Lying east of Luing and south of Seil, this tidal island was inhabited until the 1960s. There is now only one house there, which is used for holiday lets. Th ...

opposite Cooch Behar town to

Gitaldaha Gitaldaha is a village and a gram panchayat in the Dinhata I CD block in the Dinhata subdivision of the Cooch Behar district in the state of West Bengal, India. Geography Location Gitaldaha is located at . Gitaldaha I and Gitaldaha II ...

, a station on the tracks of

Eastern Bengal Railway The Eastern Bengal Railway (full name: "Eastern Bengal Railway Company"; shortened EBR) was one of the pioneering railway companies that operated from 1857 to 1942, in the Bengal and Assam provinces of British India (now part of Bangladesh Railw ...

in 1894. Cooch Behar town was connected in 1901 after a bridge was built on the Torsa. It was converted to -wide

metre gauge Metre-gauge railways ( US: meter-gauge railways) are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. Metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by several European colonial powers including France, Britain and ...

in 1910. Northeast Frontier Railway converted the Alipurduar–Bamanhat branch line to

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , more known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union countries ...

in 2007.

Infrastructure and amenities

The railway station is equipped with basic passenger facilities such as a waiting room and toilet. The station offers free Wi-Fi provided by RailTel. In 2023, a 'One Station One Product' store was opened to provide a market for local artisanship.

Trains

Six trains stop at Cooch Behar railway station. Both up and down trains are mentioned below. * 07513/07514

Siliguri Siliguri (, ; ), also known as Shiliguri, is a major Tier ii cities in india, tier-II city in West Bengal. It forms the twin cities, Twin Cities with the neighbouring city of Jalpaiguri. The city spans areas of the Darjeeling district, Darjeel ...

Bamanhat Bamanhat is a neighbourhood and a gram panchayat in the Dinhata II CD block in the Dinhata subdivision of the Cooch Behar district, West Bengal, India. Geography Location Bamanhat is located at . Bamanhat I and Bamanhat II are gram pa ...

DEMU A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

Special * 05465/05466 Alipurduar Junction-Bamanhat Passenger Special * 15467/15468 Siliguri-Bamanhat

Intercity Express Intercity Express (commonly known as ICE () and running under this category) is a high-speed rail system in Germany. It also serves destinations in Austria, France, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands as part of cross-border services. It ...

Railway heritage museum

The more than a century old Cooch Behar railway station has been accorded a heritage status and a new building was built to accommodate a Railway Heritage Museum. The railway museum is a minuscule version of the National Rail Museum located in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

and is based on the architecture of the Madan Mohan temple in Cooch Behar. There are four open galleries in the museum with different themes related to

Indian Railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

and Cooch Behar State Railway. The external garden area has numerous instruments and machinery related to railways. A coach restaurant was also inaugurated near the museum which was later closed due to operational reasons. The coach is now placed next to the railway station as a display.

References

External links

*
Official images of Cooch Behar Railway MuseumArchived
{{Railway stations in West Bengal Railway stations in India opened in 1901 Alipurduar railway division Railway stations in Cooch Behar district Cooch Behar