DARJEELING MAIL — KAL BHI AAJ BHI
Kolkata, July 1, 2023
There is an old saying in North Bengal which is still true. It says the following: New Jalpaiguri springs to life with the arrival of the Darjeeling Mail and sleeps with its departure in the evening. The 12343 / 12344 Sealdah-Haldibari-Sealdah Darjeeling Mail is one of the oldest running legendary trains in India that has been running since its pre-independence days and is still in operation.
From 1878, the railway route from Kolkata, then called Calcutta, to Siliguri was in two laps. The first lap was a 184.9 kilometres long journey along the Eastern Bengal State Railway from the then Calcutta Station (later renamed Sealdah) to Damookdeah Ghat on the southern bank of the Padma River. The passengers would then avail a ferry across the river. The second lap of the journey was a 363.1 kilometres metre-gauge line of the North Bengal Railway that linked Saraghat on the northern bank of the Padma to Siliguri.
Later the 1.8 kilometres long Hardinge Bridge across the Padma came up in 1912. In 1916 the metre-gauge section north of the bridge was converted to broad gauge, and so the entire Calcutta – Siliguri route became broad-gauge. The route thus roughly ran: Sealdah – Ranaghat – Bheramara – Hardinge Bridge – Iswardi – Santahar – Hili – Parabtipur – Nilphamari – Haldibari –Jalpaiguri – Siliguri. The Darjeeling Mail ran on this route in pre-partition days. Even after the partition of India it ran on this route for some years.
With the partition of India in 1947, the major hurdle in connecting Kolkata and Siliguri was that there was no bridge across the Ganges in West Bengal or Bihar. A generally acceptable route to Siliguri was via Sahibganj loop to Rajmahal, then across the Ganges by ferry to Manihari Ghat on the other side, then to Kishanganj via Manihari, Katihar and Barsoi and finally through narrow gauge to Siliguri. In 1949 Kishanganj–Siliguri section too was converted to a metre gauge.
In the early 1965s, when Farakka Barrage was being constructed, a more radical change was made. Indian Railways created a new broad-gauge rail link from Kolkata, and on a Greenfield site south of Siliguri Town built an entirely new broad-gauge junction.
The 2,256.25 metre-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 the Barharwa – Azimganj – Katwa loop to Malda Town, Barsoi, Kishanganj, New Jalpaiguri and other railway stations in North Bengal. Since then Darjeeling Mail has been using the Howrah – New Jalpaiguri line.
The iconic Darjeeling Mail, which connects Siliguri – the gateway of North East India- to the City of Joy- Kolkata still remains the first choice for traveller who loves luxury and wants to experience the grandeur of the past.
Today also Darjeeling Mail have the maximum patronage & trust of passengers.
