Gitaldaha railway station

Gitaldaha
Indian Railway Station
Location Cooch Behar, West Bengal
India
Other information
Status Line out of service
History
Opened 1900?
Closed 1955-1960?
Previous names Cooch Behar State Railway
Defunct Lalmonirhat-Geetaldaha Line
Track gauge Meter gauge 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in)
from Burimari-Lalmonirhat-Parbatipur Line
Lalmonirhat
Mogalhat
India-Bangladesh border
Dharla River with broken bridge
Gitaldaha
to Golokganj

Gitaldaha (Bengali: গীতলদহ ) (also spelled Geetaldaha) 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.[1][2]

Gitaldaha I and II are gram panchayats in Dinhata I (community development block).[3]

By the turn of the nineteenth century Lalmonirhat railway station had emerged as an important railway centre. Bengal Dooars Railway constructed a line to Malbazar. Cooch Behar State Railway constructed the Gitaldaha-Jayanti narrow gauge line. Links were established with Assam, with the Golokganj-Amingaon line coming up. In pre-independence days, a 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) wide metre gauge line running via Radhikapur, Biral, Parbatipur, Tista, Gitaldaha and Golokganj connected Fakiragram in Assam with Katihar in Bihar.[4][5][6][7]

The Geetaldaha-Mogalhat link was there in 1955, when India and Pakistan signed an agreement regarding resumption of rail traffic.[8] Subsequently, a part of the bridge across the Dharla River at 26°00′11″N 89°28′10″E / 26.00304°N 89.46934°E / 26.00304; 89.46934 was washed away transforming Geetaldaha-Mogalhat into a defunct railway transit point.

Broad gauge line

Up to the sixties there was a railway link from Cooch Behar to Dhubri via Golokganj. It was then known as the Assam Line Railway Service. It also connected East Pakistan, even after partition, However, collapse of the rail-cum-road bridge over the Gangadhar in the seventies ended that link. Now the bridge has been rebuilt and the track laid again as broad gauge. As of early 2012, train services on the track are expected soon.[9] With the conversion of the Alipurduar-Bamanhat branch line to 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) Broad gauge in 2007, and its subsequent recommissioning, there is a station named New Gitaldaha on the line, near where Geetaldaha earlier was.[10]

Sonahat

Sonahat on the Dhubri district-Kurigram District border is another defunct rail transit point. Sonahat was once connected to Kurigram by a metre gauge railway. The railway bridge across the Dudhkumor River is still there. In 1955 when India and Pakistan signed an agreement regarding resumption of rail traffic, the link had already been lost because of the wash out of another bridge, possibly across the Dharla, in what is now Bangladesh. Bangladesh wants to develop Sonahat as a "land port".[11][12][13][14]

References

  1. ↑ "Introducing Burimari". lonely planet. Retrieved 2011-12-10.
  2. ↑ "Notification No. 63/94-Cus. (N.T.) dtd 21/11/1994 with amendments - Land Customs Stations and Routes for import and export of goods by land or inland water ways". Archived from the original on 28 January 2012. Retrieved 2012-03-15.
  3. ↑ "Relation between Blocks & Gram Panchayats (GPs)". Cooch Behar District Administration. Retrieved 2011-03-20.
  4. ↑ R.P. Saxena. "Indian Railway History timeline". Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  5. ↑ "Bengal Dooars Railway". Fibis. Retrieved 2011-11-20.
  6. ↑ "Geography - International". IRFCA. Retrieved 2011-12-10.
  7. ↑ "Prospect to establish Quadrilateral business link". Bangla 2000, 10 October 2000. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  8. ↑ "No. 3458, Pakistan and India, Agreement regarding resumption of rail traffic. Signed at Karachi on 15 April 1955" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-01-28.
  9. ↑ "Dhubri-Bengal Link Soon". Calcutta, India: The Telegraph, 29 December 2011. 2011-12-29. Retrieved 2012-02-02.
  10. ↑ Srivastava, V.P. "Role of Engineering Deptt in Meeting Corporate Objectives of Indian Railways" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-02-21.
  11. ↑ "Fencing on Indo-Bangla border in full swing in Assam". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 2008-02-06. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  12. ↑ "Erosion threatens Sonahat Railway Bridge in Kurigram". Bangla News 24.com. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  13. ↑ "The lifestyle may be changed by Sonahat landport in Kurigram". Kurigram News. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  14. ↑ "No. 3458, Pakistan and india, Agreement regarding resumption of rail traffic. Signed at Karachi on 15 April 1955" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-01-28.
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