Barauni–Guwahati line

Barauni–Guwahati line
Overview
Status	Operational
Locale	Bihar, Assam
Termini	Barauni Guwahati Junction
Operation
Opened	1950
Owner	Indian Railway
Operator(s)	East Central Railway, Northeast Frontier Railway
Technical
Line length	804 km (500 mi)
Track gauge	1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) Broad gauge

Barauni–Guwahati line
Legend
km to Barauni–Gorakhpur, Raxaul & Jainagar lines to Mokama–Barauni section 0 Barauni x17px National Highway 28 By-pass Barauni–Katihar section 15 Begusarai to Hasanpur Road & Samastipur 61 Khagaria 69 Mansi to Saharsa x17px National Highway 31 128 Naugachhia Kosi River to Teznarayanpur 185 Katihar Katihar–Siliguri line 225 Barsoi to Howrah–New Jalpaiguri line Bihar West Bengal border x17px National Highway 34 West Bengal Bihar border 281 Kishanganj Bihar West Bengal border Katihar–Siliguri line to Siliguri via Thakurganj Mahananda River 386 New Jalpaiguri to New Jalpaiguri–Alipurduar– Samuktala Road line New Jalpaiguri–New Bongaigaon section 409 Jalpaiguri Junction to Haldibari-New Jalpaiguri line 420 Jalpaiguri-Road Teesta River 386 New Maynaguri Jaldhaka River 452 Dhupguri Torsha River to Alipurduar Junction via Alipurduar-Bamanhat brach line 519 New Cooch Behar to Bamanhat via Alipurduar-Bamanhat brach line 542 New Alipurduar to New Jalpaiguri–Alipurduar– Samuktala Road line Raidak River Sankosh River Assam–West Bengal border to Fakiragram-Dhubri branch line 596 Fakiragram Gourang River 606 Kokrajhar 634 New Bongaigaon New Bongaigaon–Guwahati section Beki River 676 Barpeta Road 724 Nalbari Pagladiya River 740 Rangia to Tezpur Saraighat Bridge across across Brahmaputra River to New Bongaigaon via Goalpara 798 Kamakhya to Pandu 804 Guwahati to Lumding

The Barauni–Guwahati line connects Barauni Junction in the Indian state of Bihar and Guwahati Junction in Assam. It is a linkage of prime importance for Northeastern India.

History

Pre-independence era

The earliest railway tracks in Assam were laid in the Dibrugarh area in 1882 for the transportation of tea and coal. The first passenger railway was also in that area.

Linking Guwahati was the challenge. In response to the demands of tea planters in Assam for a rail link to Chittagong port, the Assam Bengal Railway started construction of a railway track on the eastern side of Bengal in 1891. A 150 km (93 mi) track between Chittagong and Comilla was opened to traffic in 1895. The Comilla–Akhaura–Kalaura–Badarpur section was opened in 1896–1898 and finally extended to Lumding in 1903. The Assam Bengal Railway constructed a branch line to Guwahati, connecting the city to the eastern line in 1900.

During the period 1884–1889, Assam Behar State Railway linked Parbatipur, now in Bangladesh, with Katihar in Bihar. North Bengal State Railway had opened a metre gauge line from Parbatipur and the line subsequently got extended beyond the Teesta, and through Geetaldaha to Golokganj in Assam. During the 1900–1910 period, the Eastern Bengal Railway built the Golakganj–Amingaon branch line, thus connecting the western bank of the Brahmaputra to Bihar and the rest of India. Katihar got linked to Barauni around the turn of the century.

Assam Link project

With the partition of India railways in Assam got delinked from those in the rest of India. Indian Railway took up the Assam Link project in 1948 to build a rail link between Fakiragram and Kishanganj. Fakiragram was connected to the Indian railway system in 1950 through the Indian portion of North Bengal with a metre gauge track. Keeping in mind the Project Unigauge, the New Jalpaiguri–New Bongaigaon section was partly new construction, partly old line converted to broad gauge in 1966. Broad gauge reached Guwahati in 1984.

Bridges

The construction of the 2 km (1.2 mi) long Rajendra Setu in 1959 provided the first opportunity to link the railway tracks on the north and south banks of the Ganges.

The 3.19 kilometres (1.98 mi) long rail-cum-road bridge located at Munger 55 km downstream of the Rajendra Setu, now under construction, will link Jamalpur station on the Sahibganj Loop line of Eastern Railway to the Barauni–Katihar section of East Central Railway.

The 2,240 m (7,350 ft) long Farakka Barrage carries a rail-cum-road bridge across the Ganges. The rail bridge was thrown open to the public in 1971, thereby linking Kolkata with North Bengal and Assam.

The construction of the 1.49 km long Saraighat Bridge, the first rail-cum-road bridge across the Brahmaputra, was an event of great excitement. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister formally laid the foundation stone on 10 January 1960 and it was completed in 1962, connecting the two parts of the metre gauge railways in Assam.

Electrification

Electrification of the 809 km (503 mi) long Barauni–Katihar–Guwahati section was sanctioned in 2008. As of 2011, work on electrification of Barabanki–Gorakhpur–Barauni–New Jalpaiguri route was in progress.