The East Bengal Express was one of three trains operated between India and

East Pakistan East Pakistan was the eastern province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1971, restructured and renamed from the province of East Bengal and covering the territory of the modern country of Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Burma, wit ...

. The long journey used to take 5 hrs 20 minutes, running at . The East Bengal Express used to depart Sealdah at 23.40 hours & reach Goalundo Ghat at 05.00 hours. On return, the train used to depart Goalundo Ghat at 11.40 hours & reach Sealdah at 17.00 hours. Here is a brief on the importance of Goalundo Ghat in earlier years: "If one goes from Calcutta to Dacca the rail journey is broken at Goalundo and from there to Narayanganj is continued by steamer. The night mail from Calcutta deposits one at Goalundo in the early hours of the morning... It (Goalundo) is situated at the junction of the Padma, or Ganges, and the Brahmaputra, and daily services of steamers connect it with the railway systems at Narayanganj and Chandpur, and with the steamer services to Madaripur, Barisal, Sylhet, and Cachar. There are also daily services of steamers up the Padma to Digha Ghat in the dry season, and Buxar in the rains, and up the Brahmaputra to Dibrugarh. From that it will be seen that Goalundo occupies a very strong strategic position in the waterways of Bengal, a position which has been made much stronger by railway development." The rail link was permanently suspended at the outbreak of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.

Overview

Prior to 1965, when armed conflict broke out between India and Pakistan, rail links existed between India and East Pakistan. Three trains ran between the two countries carrying goods and passengers: (1) East Bengal Express between

Sealdah Sealdah is a neighbourhood of Central Kolkata in Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Etymology Jackals (''sheal'' in Bengali) howled around Sealdah. Antiquarians identify it as Shrigaldwipa (Jackal Island). Nearby Beliaghata ...

and

Goalundo Ghat Goalundo Ghat (also spelled Goalanda and Goalondo; ) is a small town and Municipality#Municipalities as lower-level governance structures, pourasabha in Goalandaghat Upazila, Rajbari District, Dhaka Division, Bangladesh. There are two railway ...

via Gede–

Darshana In Indian religions, a ''darshan'' (Sanskrit: दर्शन, ; 'showing, appearance, view, sight') or ''darshanam'' is the auspicious sight of a deity or a holy person. The term also refers to any one of the six traditional schools of Hind ...

(2) East Bengal Mail between Sealdah and via Gede–Darshana, and (3) Barisal Express between Sealdah and

Khulna Khulna (, ) is the third-largest city in Bangladesh, after Dhaka and Chittagong. It is the administrative centre of the Khulna District and the Khulna Division. It is the divisional centre of 10 districts of the division. Khulna is also the seco ...

via Petrapole–Benapole.

History

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 ...

opened the line from Calcutta to Goalundo, on the southern bank of the

Padma The Padma () is a major river in Bangladesh. It is the eastern and main distributary of the Ganges, flowing generally southeast for to its confluence with the Meghna River, near the Bay of Bengal. The city of Rajshahi is situated on the bank ...

in 1871.

References

Named passenger trains of India Named passenger trains of Bangladesh International named passenger trains Defunct trains in India Railway services discontinued in 1965 1871 establishments in India Transport in Kolkata {{India-express-train-stub