| Box Width: | 28em |
| Alipurduar–Bamanhat branch line | |
| Color: | 800000 |
| Type: | Rail line |
| Status: | Operational |
| Locale: | West Bengal |
| Open: | 1894 onwards |
| Owner: | Indian Railways |
| Operator: | Northeast Frontier Railway |
| Tracklength: | 72 km |
| Gauge: | broad gauge |
| Old Gauge: | Narrow gauge (1894–1910) Metre gauge (1910–2007) |
| Electrification: | Yes |
| Speed: | 100 Km/Hr |
| Map State: | collapsed |
The Alipurduar–Bamanhat branch line is an Indian railway line connecting with . This 72adj=onNaNadj=on track is under the jurisdiction of Northeast Frontier Railway.
The Cooch Behar State Railway (CBSR) was a narrow gauge railway line that was built between Jayanti in the current Alipurduar district of West Bengal, India to Lalmonirhat in the current Lalmonirhat district in Bangladesh before partition between 1893 and 1898. The line originated from Jayanti near the foothills of Eastern Himalayas and went via Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, Dinhata and Gitaldaha to finally join the narrow-gauge track of Kaunia–Dharlla State Railway at Mogalhat. This line was later brought by Eastern Bengal Railway in 1899.[1]
The Kaunia–Dharlla State Railway was constructed as a narrow-gauge line from Teesta railway junction to Mogalhat in 1882 by Eastern Bengal Railway. As a part of linking with the long Katihar–Raiganj–Dinajpur–Parbatipur–Rangpur–Kaunia main metre-gauge line the Kaunia–Mogalhat–Gitaldaha NG section was converted to metre gauge from 1901 to 1902. The long Gitaldaha-Golakganj section was built as a part of the main metre-gauge line in 1902 via Bamanhat & Sonahat. This metre-gauge line was further extended to Amingaon via Fakiragram & Kokrajhar in 1906. The Jayanti–Gitaldaha junction section was converted to metre gauge in 1910.[2]
With the partition of India in 1947, the Assam links to Bengal were snapped. Further the Gitaldaha–Mogalhat rail transit point became defunct as floods washed away the railway bridge over Dharla River. The Alipurduar–Bamanhat section and the Fakiragram-Golakganj section were cut off as well and became isolated metre gauge sections. As a part of the Assam Link project a line was constructed between Kishanganj and Fakiragram in 1948. Thus these 2 sections became branch lines. Fakiragram was connected with a new line via Boxirhat to New Coochbehar in 2010-12.
The Alipurduar–Bamanhat branch line was converted from metre gauge to broad gauge and was reopened to public in 2007.[3] A new station called the New Gitaldaha station was built to be used instead of the old Gitaldaha junction. The Fakiragram–Golakganj–Dhubri section was converted from metre gauge to broad gauge during 2010. Golakgunj was linked with New Cooch Behar with a new line in 2012 as a part of the New Maynaguri-Jogighopa project.[4] [5]
|