| New Gitaldaha | |
| Type: | Indian Railways station |
| Style: | Indian Railways |
| Address: | Cooch Behar, West Bengal |
| Country: | India |
| Coordinates: | 26.0352°N 89.4888°W |
| Opened: | 1900 |
| Closed: | 1955–1960? |
| Status: | Line out of service |
| Former: | Cooch Behar State Railway |
| Map Type: | India West Bengal#India |
New Gitaldaha railway station is on the broad-gauge Alipurduar–Bamanhat branch line.[1]
Gitaldaha was a railway station and is a defunct rail transit point on the India–Bangladesh border in Cooch Behar district in the Indian state of West Bengal. The corresponding point on the Bangladesh side is Mogalhat in Lalmonirhat District.[2] [3]
The area was agog with railway activity in the 19th–20th century. The Assam Behar State Railway linked Parbatipur to Katihar, with a metre-gauge line in 1889. In the early 1900s, the Eastern Bengal Railway extended railways to Lalmonirhat, Gitaldaha (via Mogalhat), Bamanhat, Golokganj and other places, thereby connecting Assam to Katihar, in Bihar, via North Bengal. In 1901 Cooch Behar State Railway built the narrow-gauge line from Gitaldaha to Jayanti, near the Bhutan border. Shortly thereafter, the line was upgraded to meter gauge.[4] [5]
The Lalmonirhat–Mogalhat–Gitaldaha route was functional when India and Pakistan agreed in 1955 for resumption of railway traffic between the two countries, and it included movement of cross traffic via Mogalhat through the Eastern Bengal Railway.[6] A portion of the bridge across the Dharla River at 26.003°N 89.4693°W was washed away by floods in 1988.[7] [8] Prior to the partition of India, the prestigious Assam Mail used to travel from Santahar to Guwahati.[9]
The conversion of the 72 km-long Alipurduar–Bamanhat branch line to broad gauge in 2007, and its subsequent recommissioning, had a station at New Gitaldaha.[10]
New Gitaldaha railway station serves Gitaldaha and the surrounding areas.
The map alongside presents the position as it stands today (2020). The international border was not there when the railways were first laid in the area in the 19th-20th century. It came up in 1947. The map is 'interactive' (the larger version) - it means that all the places shown in the map are linked in the full screen map.