Grand Chord

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Grand Chord section of the Indian Railways is a link between Howrah (Kolkata, West Bengal) and Mughalsarai (near Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh), and covers a stretch of 450 km. Traversing through Chhota Nagpur plateau of Jharkhand as well as parts of the fertile Gangetic plains of Bihar, The Grand Chord covers a stretch of 450 km and passes through towns like Dhanbad, Koderma, Gaya, Sasaram and several other smaller places.

The railways had first came to eastern India in 1854, and Calcutta–Delhi railway link, a distance of more than 1636 km, became operational by 1866. With the increase in traffic it became necessary to construct an alternative route.

With this in view, The Grand Chord section was planned. The Grand Chord section was opened in December, 1906 by Lord Minto, the-then Viceroy and Governor General of India. With opening of the Grand Chord route, distance between Calcutta and Delhi was reduced by 80 km. The cost of construction was around Rs. 41,500,000, that is, US$800,000. Added info about trains on the route At one time in seventies it was said that a goods train passes every 20 minutes on the grand chord line. Surprisingly few mail-express trains use this shorter route. most trains use the route via patana called as main line. Kalka mail horah, mumbai mail via allahabad Rajdhani express to seladh, Deharadun express, poorva express and recenly added Horah gwalior-Indore express are the only main trains between Dhanabad and Mughalsarai which use this route.Anil.pedgaonkar 16:15, 9 December 2006 (UTC) Anil Pedgaonkar