Parbatipur Junction railway station () is a railway junction in Dinajpur district of

Rangpur Division Rangpur Division (; ; ) is a first-level Divisions of Bangladesh, administrative division of Bangladesh. It covers the northernmost part of the country with a population of about 18 million inhabitants within an area of . Rangpur Division shar ...

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 and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

History

During the British period all railway connections to Assam and North Bengal were through the eastern part of Bengal. From 1878, the railway route from Kolkata, then called Calcutta, to Siliguri was in two laps. The first lap was a 185 km journey along the Eastern Bengal State Railway from Calcutta Station (later renamed Sealdah) to Damookdeah Ghat on the southern bank of the

Padma River 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 banks ...

, then across the river in a ferry and the second lap of the train journey, which was a 336 km metre gauge line of the North Bengal Railway that linked Saraghat on the northern bank of the Padma to Siliguri. The 1.8 km long

Hardinge Bridge Hardinge Bridge is a steel railway truss bridge over the Padma River located at Ishwardi, Pabna and Bheramara, Kushtia in Bangladesh. It is named after Lord Hardinge, who was the Viceroy of India from 1910 to 1916. The bridge is long. Const ...

across the Padma came up in 1912. In 1926 the metre-gauge section north of the bridge was converted to broad gauge, and so the entire Calcutta-Siliguri route became broad-gauge. Parbatipur came up as a station on the Calcutta-Siliguri route. Once Parbatipur came up as a railway station on the Chilahati-Parbatipur-Santahar-Darshana Line in 1876, it became a centre of further railway development. There were two developments, one eastward and the other westward. North Bengal State Railway opened a metre gauge line to Kaunia in 1879. Two narrow gauge lines were laid by Eastern Bengal Railway from Kaunia to Dharla River. The Kaunia Dharla railway lines were converted to metre gauge in 1901. The Kaunia-Dharla line was extended to

Amingaon Amingaon () is a locality in North Guwahati, Assam. Geography It is located at with a mean elevation of above sea level. To its north and west is the Agyathuri hill, to its south is the Brahmaputra River, and to its east is IIT Guwahati. A ...

in 1908. The Assam Behar State Railway started building westward in 1884 and by 1889, Parbatipur was connected with

Katihar Katihar (; ), is the tenth largest city in the state of Bihar in India in terms of population, Along with being one of the largest economic, educational and administrative centre in the eastern part of Bihar. The city situated in the eastern ...

in Bihar. With the

partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

, railway links outside Bangladesh were lost but Parbatipur continued to be an important railway junction.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Parbatipur Junction railway station Railway stations in Rangpur Division Railway junction stations in Bangladesh Parbatipur Upazila Railway stations in Bangladesh opened in 1878