Eastern Railway (ER) has decided to connect the Howrah Barddhaman chord (HB chord) line to South Eastern Railway’s (SER) Bankura line at Masagram Jn station as part of Gati Shakti initiative.
SER’s Bankura- Masagram line terminates at Masagram Jn, a station situated on ER’s HB Chord line. Hence passengers have to switch over to ER platforms to access the HB chord line.
An inspection to construct this important connection was conducted by Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Howrah Sanjeev Kumar along with several other officers.
Once the connecting line between ER’s HB Chord line and SER’s Bankura Masagram line is built, it will facilitate seamless movement of trains benefitting passenger and goods train movements.The project is likely to cost about Rs 40 crore.
Passengers will no longer have to change trains at Masagram for going to Bankura as it will be possible to introduce a new direct train service from Howrah to Bankura in the future. It will also facilitate easy transportation of raw materials and agricultural produce.
History
SER’s Bankura Masagram line was originally built as Bankura -Rainagar 2’ 6’ narrow gauge rail which terminated at Rainagar on the south bank of the river Damodar.
Named Bankura Damoodar River Railway ( this is how Damodar was spelt in those days), the section opened to traffic as follows:
Bankura to Indas (42.34 miles) on December 15,1916
Indas to Sehara Bazar (11.66 miles) on April 1,1917 and
Sehara Bazar to Rainagar (5.95 miles) on June 6,1917.
Totalling 59.95 miles, this line was a part of the Mcleod’s Light Railways.It became a part of SER in 1967.
Upon gauge conversion, the line was extended by another 22 km from Rainagar to Masagram railway station on ER’s HB chord line. This was done after construction of a major bridge over Damodar river along with a terminating platform at Masagram.
