Grand Chord

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Grand Chord section of the Indian Railways is a link between Howrah (Kolkata, West Bengal) and Mughal Sarai (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 first came to eastern India in 1854, and the 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, then Viceroy and Governor General of India. With the opening of the Grand Chord route, the 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.

[edit] Additional information about trains on the route

At one time in the seventies it was said that a goods train passes by every 20 minutes on the Grand Chord line. Surprisingly few mail/express trains use this shorter route. Most trains use the route via Patna, known as the Main Line. Kalka Mail, Howrah-Mumbai Mail via Allahabad, Rajdhani Express to Howrah and Sealdah, Dehradun Express, Poorva Express and the recently added Howrah-Gwalior Chambal Express and Howrah-Indore Shipra Express are the only main trains between Dhanbad and Mughal Sarai which use this route.