RRC, Eastern Railway

Genesis:

On 15^th August 1854, East Indian Railway (EIR)’s first train ran from Howrah to Hooghly, a distance of 24 miles. Regular services were introduced from that day, with stops at Bally, Serampore and Chandannagore.

In 1862, EIR extended up to the west bank of Yamuna on its way to Delhi. In 1864, in a bid to connect Calcutta and Delhi, trains started running between the two cities without any bridge on Yamuna by ferrying the coaches on boats across the river at Allahabad. In 1865 the Yamuna Bridge at Allahabad opened. In 1867 EIR branch line extended from Allahabad to Jubbalpore.

After the Government of India took over the management of EIR in 1925, it was split into six divisions — Howrah, Asansol and Dinapore known as the lower divisions and Allahabad, Lucknow and Moradabad known as the upper divisions.

Eastern Railway (ER) was formed on 14 April 1952 by the integration of the East Indian Railway (EIR) consisting of the Sealdah, Howrah, Asansol and Danapur Divisions and the entire Bengal – Nagpur Railway (BNR). The jurisdiction of ER extended from Howrah to Mughalsarai in the North, up to Visakhapatnam in the South and up to Nagpur in the Central area. The three Upper divisions of E.I.R. were added to Northern Railway.

Later, the portions of BNR stretching from Howrah to Visakhapatnam in the South, Howrah to Nagpur in the Central area and up to Katni in the North Central Region were separated from Eastern Railway and formed as “South Eastern Railway” with effect from 1^st August 1955.

Asansol Division was formed in 1925, the Dhanbad Division in 1964, the Mughulsarai Division in 1975 and the Malda Division in 1984 as part of ER.

After redistribution and construction of new lines over a period of time, Eastern Railway as of 30 September 2002, stretched over 4245.61 kilometres.

On 01-10-2002, three divisions viz. Dhanbad, Mughalsarai and Danapur were separated from the Eastern Railway to create a new East Central Railway zone with headquarters at Hajipur. Eastern Railway as of October 2019 consists of 2815 Route Kilometres spread over four divisions viz. Sealdah, Howrah, Asansol and Malda out of which 2118 route kilometres are electrified on 25 KV AC traction.

Jurisdiction:

Eastern Railway extends to the Bangladesh border in the East up to Lalgola, Benapole and Gede. Malda and Kiul to the North, Namkhana near Ganga Sagar to the South and Asansol and Jhajha in the West.

Starting from Howrah, the trunk route of Eastern Railway runs 221 km. to Sitarampur from where it takes two directions towards Delhi, one via Patna and the other via Dhanbad – Gaya. Both these routes converge again at Mughalsarai Station of East Central Railway. Adjoining railways are North East Frontier Railway to the north, East Central Railway to the west and South Eastern Railway to the south.

The area served by Eastern Railway is important to the economy of the country, as apart from serving the most densely populated region in the country, this Railway serves the areas rich in minerals, agriculture and industry.