Suburban Railway, Kolkata

Kolkata Railway Network

The Suburban Railway, Kolkata is a rail system which connects the suburbs that surround Kolkata, the city of joy! These kinds of Railway networks are some of the major networks and hugely used infrastructure within the country.

There are several divisions of Indian Railways (IR) among which the South Eastern Railway and Eastern Railway have their headquarters located in Kolkata.  Howrah and Sealdah are the 2 important railway junctions in Kolkata. One more important terminal has been constructed at Chitpur and is named as “Kolkata”. Of late a terminal located at Shalimar near Howrah has also started functioning.

There are several “intercity express trains” also operating from Kolkata. The city of Kolkata and its districts are replete with an extensive system of suburban railways. Majority of the trains are Electric Multiple Unites i.e. This Kolkata railway network extends into South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, Nadia, Purba Medinipur, Bardhaman, and Paschim Medinipur.

The services at suburban railway, Kolkata are looked after by the Eastern Railway (ER) and South Eastern Railway (SER) while the Kolkata Metro Railways controls the underground Metro in the city. Further, there is a “Circular Railway corridor” in Kolkata which is also operated by ER.

In the year 2009, the Railway Minister, Ms Mamata Baneerjee announced that “Ladies Special Suburban Trains” will be introduced in the suburban section of Kolkata. Some of the routes on which these ladies trains will run are

  • Sealdah – ranaghat
  • Howrah – Kharagpur
  • Sealdah – Canning
  • Howrah – Bandel
  • Sealdah – Bongaon
  • Sealdah – Baruipur

The Circular Railway, Kolkata encloses the whole of Kolkata. It begins from Dum Dum Station in North and passing through Burrabazar, B.B.D.Bag, Chitpur, Prinsep Ghat, Kidderpore, Remount Road, Hastings, Majherhat, Park Circus, Sir Gurudas Banerjee Halt, Ballygunge, again returns to Dum Dum Junction. Plans are also there to construct more junctions in between Park Circus and Sir Gurudas Banerjee Halt, namely Tangra and Beliaghata Main Road correspondingly.