Goalundo Ghat (also spelled Goalanda and Goalondo; bn, গোয়ালন্দঘাট) is a small town and pourasabha in

Goalandaghat Upazila Goalanda ( bn, গোয়ালন্দ) is an upazila of Rajbari District in the Division of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Geography Goalanda is located at . It has 15,694 housing units and has a total area of 149.03 km2. Demographics Goalanda had ...

Rajbari District Rajbari ( bn, রাজবাড়ী) is a district in central Bangladesh, located in the Dhaka Division. It is a part of the Greater Faridpur subregion of Bengal due to the historical, linguistic and cultural identities of its inhabitants. Hi ...

Dhaka Division Dhaka Division ( bn, ঢাকা বিভাগ, ''Ḑhaka Bibhag'') is an administrative division within Bangladesh. Dhaka serves as the capital city of the Dhaka Division, the Dhaka District and Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), offic ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million pe ...

, South Asia. There are two railway stops one at Goalundo Ghat and one at Goalundo Bazar. The town has an area of 4.86 km² and a population of 22,000 inhabitants (2001 estimate).

Historical significance

The

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 Bengal and Assam provinces of British Raj, British India. History Formation ...

opened the line from

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

to Goalundo, on the southern bank of the

Padma The Padma ( bn, পদ্মা ''Pôdma'') is a major river in Bangladesh. It is the 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 s ...

in 1871. Goalundo was for many years a major transportation hub for travel in eastern parts of Bengal and Assam. 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 Narayanganj ( bn, নারায়ণগঞ্জ ''Naraeongônj'') is a city in central Bangladesh. It is in the Narayanganj District, about southeast of the capital city of Dhaka, and has a population of about 2 million. It is the 6th large ...

is continued by steamer. The night mail from Calcutta deposits one at Goalundo in the early hours of the morning. It 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

and Chandpur, and with the steamer services to

Madaripur Madaripur ( bn, মাদারীপুর ), being a part of the Dhaka Division, is a district in central Bangladesh. History Madaripur subdivision was established in 1854 under the district of Bakerganj. In 1873 it was separated from Bakergan ...

Barisal Barisal ( or ; bn, বরিশাল, ), officially known as Barishal, is a major city that lies on the banks of the Kirtankhola river in south-central Bangladesh. It is the largest city and the administrative headquarter of both Barisal Di ...

Sylhet Sylhet ( bn, সিলেট) is a metropolitan city in northeastern Bangladesh. It is the administrative seat of the Sylhet Division. Located on the north bank of the Surma River at the eastern tip of Bengal, Sylhet has a subtropical climat ...

, and

Cachar Cachar district is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. After independence the undivided Cachar district was split into four districts in Assam: Dima Hasao district (formerly North Cachar Hills), Cachar district alongsid ...

. There are also daily services of steamers up the

to Digha Ghat ,

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

in the dry season, and

Buxar Buxar is a nagar parishad city in the state of Bihar, India bordering Uttar Pradesh. It is the headquarters of the eponymous Buxar district, as well as the headquarters of the community development block of Buxar, which also contains the c ...

in the rains, and up the Brahmaputra to

Dibrugarh Dibrugarh (pron: ˌdɪbru:ˈgɑ:) is an industrial city in Upper Assam with sprawling tea gardens. It is located 435 kms East from the state capital of Dispur. It serves as the headquarters of Dibrugarh district in the state of Assam ...

. 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." Even after partition of India in 1947, the East Bengal Express ran up to 1964. That was the last direct link with Kolkata. The Goalundo Ghat railway link has since been used only for internal travel in Bangladesh.

Changing scenario

Bus/road travel has since gained primary importance in Bangladesh. Most people use buses for travel from Dhaka and other places to

Benapole Benapole ( bn, বেনাপোল) is a township in Sharsha Upazila in the Jessore District of Bangladesh. The Petrapole Customs station of India is situated across the border and since 1971 (some sources say 1947), many people have travelled ...

and then cross over the border for links to

. For a long time road transport has been using the Daulatdia-Paturia ferry crossing nearby. The ferry also carries long-distance buses across the

. The Government of Bangladesh has invited in November 2011 international tenders for the construction of the 6.1 km long second bridge across the

connecting Paturia and Daulatdia on a public-private partnership basis at a cost of 2 billion dollars.

References

External links

{{commons category
Goalonda Ghat
in Encyclopædia Britannica Populated places in Dhaka Division