Grand arrival at New Jalpaiguri Junction, alias the mecca of NFR:: Sikkim Mahananda on- board

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• published: 09 Sep 2013
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Date taken: July 2013 Camcorder: SONY DCR SX45E 27 hours late running 15484 Old Delhi (DLI)- New Alipur Duar (APDJ) SIKKIM MAHANANDA Express with a SGUJ WDP- 4 in lead accelerates after getting a belated proceed signal at New Jalpaiguri outers, and then slowly proceeds towards the station. Firstly, at the coaching yard, a GD WDM- 3A is seen shunting a few BCNA wagons, and also a spare NJP Shatabdi coach is spotted. Next, 13017 WDG- 3A "Shakti" of NGC shed, and a trailing brand new 12730 WDG- 4 of SGUJ shed with a BCNA rake is spotted at the freight yard. As we near the platform premises, 12176 SGUJ WDG- 4, a KTE WDG- 3A and a UDL WDG- 3A is spotted with their respective loads. Finally, on the station, a DEMU, and light 20075 Hybrid WDP- 4B is spotted as we come to a halt. The 20075 later was replaced by the current WDP- 4 as the link for SIKKIM MAHANANDA. New Jalpaiguri railway station: New Jalpaiguri is a railway station in Siliguri city in the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal. Siliguri Urban Area, situated in the foothills of the Himalayas, is spread over the districts of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri. New Jalpaiguri railway station is located in Jalpaiguri district. Siliguri is the largest and the fastest growing city in North Bengal and is considered to be the gateway to north-eastern India. The partition of India in 1947 completely disrupted communication links of North Bengal and Assam with southern parts of West Bengal. Earlier, the links were through the eastern part of Bengal, which became a part of Pakistan in 1947 on partition of India. Siliguri gained in importance as the gateway to North Bengal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Assam. Around 1949, Siliguri Junction station, a new station north of the old Siliguri Town station, came up with several metre gauge lines converging on it. In addition there was the narrow gauge Darjeeling Himalayan Railway running from Siliguri Town station to Darjeeling via Siliguri Junction. The Assam Rail Link Project, completed in 1950, linked the railways in Assam, with a metre gauge line to Kishanganj. The line running across North Bengal, spanned the Teesta, Torsha, and Sankosh rivers. In the early 1960s, Indian Railways started changing over from metre gauge to broad gauge and built a new 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) broad gauge station south of Siliguri Town station. It was intended to name the station as New Siliguri station. However, as the new station was located in Jalpaiguri district, it was named New Jalpaiguri station. By 1964, New Jalpaiguri became the most important railway station in the area. It had both broad gauge (to Kishanganj and Barsoi) and metre gauge (to Siliguri town and Siliguri junction) tracks. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway narrow gauge track was extended from Siliguri town station to the new greenfield station. The metre gauge track from New Jaipaiguri to Siliguri town and Siliguri junction was later converted to broad gauge.