Patna railway junction, one of the oldest in India

Patna railway station in 1890, British India. Pinterest

 Can you imagine Patna Junction, a major railway station in the capital city of Patna, Bihar state, is the seventh busiest railway station in India in terms of frequency of trains ?  It is after Kanpur Central, Vijayawada Junction, Delhi Junction, New Delhi, Ambala Cant and Howrah. That how the railway authorities handle so many trains in a day is a riddle, because there are only 10 long platforms available  to handle the heavy traffic. Falling under the Danapur division of the East Central Railway zone of the Indian Railways, about 173 trains start, end, or pass through the station daily. Situated in heart of the city, it is the main railway station serving Patna city as well.

Lying between
New Delhi and Kolkata main route, one of the busiest rail routs, it is not only connected to many cities across India, but also is a major hub in the city having six  major stations: Patna Junction, Rajendranagar Terminal, Gulzarbagh Station, Danapur railway station, Patliputra Junction and Patna Sahib Station.  Plans are afoot to modernise this busy railway junction with shopping malls, etc.

Though the British opened the railways in India for their benefits, no doubt, we owe a lot to them because in the later years after first introduction of the trains, it became a major mass transport system moving vast number of people across various destinations in India which otherwise were inaccessible.

Patna railway junction is one of the oldest ones in India. In 1862, it was opened  Bankipore Junction in Bankipore town (Bankzpur), headquarters of the division and Patna district in Bengal, British India. The British built the railways through Patna to move, in particular, commercial goods, as transportation of raw materials, finished products, etc., on the Ganges River was cumbersome and tedious.  The railway construction work via Patna began in 1855 and finished in 1862. To avoid congestion, two branch lines were built: one is in the western zone that connects Patna junction railway station with Digha Ghat and the other is in the eastern zone connecting the Patna City railway station with Patna Ghat. The Danapur Division  opened to traffic  on 1 January 1925. The present Divisional Railway Managers’s office building was built in 1929.

Patna Junction, Bihar. IndiLeak
It was on 1 October 1948 , after independence first Janata Express train between  Patna and Delhi was introduced. It comprised only third class  boogies. Later it extended to Howrah (Calcutta) and other places.The railway here carefully uses the RRI (route relay interlocking) system which is fully computerised, so it has improved the safety of the railway

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysore_Junction_railway_station

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