Sealdah railway station

Sealdah railway station (SDAH) is an NSG–1 category Indian railway station in Sealdah railway division of Eastern Railway zone. Located at Sealdah in central Kolkata, it is one of the five terminal railway stations serving the Kolkata metropolitan area, the others being Howrah, Shalimar, Kolkata and Santragachi. It is the second largest and second busiest railway station in India and West Bengal in terms of platforms, tracks and overall daily passenger holding capacity, making it one of the world also.

Over 1.5 million passengers use the station on a daily basis. It is an important suburban rail terminal of Kolkata Suburban Railway. Passengers can use the Sealdah metro station to transfer to the Green Line of Kolkata Metro.^{[citation needed]}

The origins of Sealdah Station can be traced back to the mid-19th century when the British colonial administration initiated the construction of railways in India. The station was named after Frederick William Stevens, the then Governor-General of British India, who held the title of Lord Sealdah. Sealdah Station was officially opened to the public on 2 December 1862, as part of the Eastern Bengal Railway network from Calcutta to Kushtia. At the Calcutta end there was a tin-roofed station room. Sealdah railway station had a proper Station Building in 1869, designed by Mr Walter Glanville. The present Sealdah-Ranaghat line was a part of the Sealdah-Kushtia line and was subsequently extended to Goalundo Ghat.

Eastern Bengal Railway Company was registered in 1857 to establish railroad connection between Calcutta and Eastern part of undivided Bengal beyond Ganges(Padma). The first section was completed in January 1862 from Calcutta to Champahati. By May 1862 this extended to Port Canning. Ranaghat was connected in September 1862. Initially, the company was known as Eastern Bengal Guaranteed Railway and ran its trains on guaranteed lines. The guaranteed lines were constructed by companies formed in England. In 1862, the station was well established with 4 platforms

The tram terminus was located at Sealdah Station before the year 1981 from where the concept of horse tram carriage started. There was a tram terminus at Sealdah station. Trams departed from here towards Rajabazar, Howrah Station, Calcutta High Court, Dalhousie Square, Park Circus and Dharmatala. The first horse tram service of Kolkata was also started from Sealdah to Armenian Ghat, following the current route 14 & 16 between Lebutala & Dalhousie Square. The Sealdah–Lebutala section was closed in 1981 & Dalhousie Square–Armenian Ghat (later extended to High Court) stretchwas closed in 1995. That terminus was demolished in 1981 also with the Sealdah–Lebutala tram track stretched through Boubazar Street for construction of the Sealdah flyover. Later tram services between Rajabazar–Esplanade and Park Circus–Burrabazar and other services pass through Sealdah were completely closed in 2019 due to excuse of damaging the flyover. Currently, the rounded entrance building of Sealdah metro station exists in place of the old tram terminus.

There are three station terminals at Sealdah: "Sealdah North", "Sealdah Main" and "Sealdah South":^{[citation needed]}

The north and south sections have a separate set of emerging tracks. The north and south sections are connected by two links: Dumdum–Majherhat link (popularly circular rail) and Bidhannagar Road–Park Circus link (extension of circular rail). These two links were constructed to quickly travel between the two sections, avoiding Sealdah.

Sealdah North acts as the suburban train terminal for the main division. The main division of Sealdah north operates trains plying between Kolkata and Hasnabad, Bandel, Gede, Ranaghat, Shantipur, Krishnanagar, Berhampore, Lalgola, Dankuni, Katwa, Bardhaman, Kanchrapara, Barrackpore, Kalyani, Kalyani Simanta and others. A narrow-gauge line earlier used to connect Shantipur and Krishnanagar but now it has been replaced with broad gauge. This narrow-gauge line further continued to Nabadwip Ghat and was formerly served by DMU trains (all other lines run EMU trains). Sealdah–Dankuni (via Vivekananda Setu) line connects Eastern Railway's Howrah–Bardhaman chord at Bally Halt (on a viaduct atop Bally station) and Dankuni. Naihati–Bandel (via Sampreeti Bridge) line connects Eastern Railway's Howrah–Bardhaman main line at Bandel Jn.