Siliguri is a small town in the district of Darjeeling in the state of Assam of North East India. Located between the foothills of Himalayas and the Mahananda River Banks, it is a premier tourist spot, commercial and education centre of North Bengal. The city of Siliguri has seen a significant economic boom in the past few years in various sectors like retail, real estate and hospitality sector. Due to its rapid development, railways have become a very important aspect for the city.
The city of Siliguri has five major railway stations named Siliguri Town Railway Station, Siliguri Junction, New Jalpaiguri Railway Station, Bagdora Railway Station and Naxalbari Railway station.
- Siliguri Town Railway Station:
Siliguri Town Railway Station or SGUT is the oldest railway station of the city and was built and opened in the year 1880. At first, the Siliguri town station was connected to Calcutta through a narrow gauge line, but in 1926, it was converted into broad gauge line. This station served the most part of eastern Bengal (Now Bangladesh) before 1947.
- Siliguri Junction Railway Station:
After partition in 1947, the Railways in Bengal were greatly disturbed due to loss of East Bengal to Pakistan. Due to this, the Siliguri Town Railway Station lost its significance, and there was a need for a new railway station with a newly developed railway route for this area. The Siliguri Junction Railway Station became the main station of this area with all three gauge used in railways. Siliguri junction is special because it is only station of Indian Railways, which has all three gauges of railway used in India.
The narrow gauge connected Siliguri junction to Assam, Kishanganj, Haldibari and Barsoi till 1960, but after that this station was connected to Calcutta in 1960 with broad gauge. And, gradually, all other lines were also converted into broad gauge in following years.
The facilities and amenities that are provided to the visitors and passengers at Siliguri junction are a large waiting room, retiring room, and book stalls. The Siliguri Railway Station also has four-bedded dormitory and three double-bedded retiring rooms. It also has a tourist information centre in the station premises, which is helpful for tourists for any information about the city.
In 1961, a meter gauge Diesel Loco shed was found here at the Siliguri Junction, and in the year 2007, a new broad gauge loco shed was established here.
Major Trains at Siliguri Junction are;
- Mahananda Express
- Karmabhumi Express
- Capital Express
- Kanchan Kanya Express
- New Jalpaiguri Railway Station:
The New Jalpaiguri Railway Station or NJP was found in the year 1961 and lies on the Darjeeling-Himalayan railway line. The other lines passing through New Jalpaiguri station are Howrah New Jalpaiguri Line, New Jalpaiguri Haldibari line and New Jalpaiguri Alipurdar Samkutala Road line. It comes under the control of Katihar division of Northeast Frontier Railway Zone of Indian Railways.
The station has eight platforms out of which 2 are narrow gauge and 6 are broad gauge lines. The basic amenities at New Jalpaiguri station are non-vegetarian and vegetarian refreshment stalls, books stall, computerised reservation and ticket booking centre. The station also has two AC retiring rooms with double beds, six Non-AC retiring rooms with double beds, one dormitory with three beds and one dormitory with twelve beds.
The New Jalpaiguri is included in the list of top hundred booking stations of Indian Railways. There are more than one hundred trains, which have a halt at New Jalpaiguri station. The station handles the train with a longest train route in India, which is Vivek Express from Dibrugarh to Kanyakumari. It travels a distance of 4286 KM in 82.30 hours.
These are the major three stations in Siliguri city, which are serving a large number of passengers and tourists on a daily basis.