Cooch Behar State Railway
{{Short description|Railway in West Bengal, India}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}{{Use Indian English|date=January 2016}}
{{Infobox company
|name = Cooch Behar State Railway
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|foundation =1894
|location_city = Cooch Behar
|location_country = India
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|key_people =
|area_served = Koch Bihar
|industry = Railways
|products =
|services = Rail transport
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}}
{{Cooch Behar State Railway}}
Cooch Behar State Railway (CBSR) was a {{RailGauge|2ft6in|lk=on}} narrow-gauge railway from Jayanti to Lalmonirhat in the Indian state of West Bengal.
History
Nripendra Narayan, the Maharaja of Cooch Behar, established Cooch Behar State Railway in 1893–98.{{cite web| url = http://www.irfca.org/docs/history/cooch-behar-railway.html|title = The Cooch Behar State Railways (1903)|work= "The Cooch Behar state and its land revenue settlements" by H. N. Chaudhuri, Cooch Behar State Press, 1903 – Review by R Sivaramakrishnan | publisher= IRFCA| accessdate = 2013-02-19 }} After some deliberations and discussions with the British authorities about their plans, it was decided in 1891–92 to build a {{RailGauge|2ft6in}}-wide narrow gauge railway from the southern bank of the Torsa opposite Cooch Behar town to Gitaldaha, a station on the tracks of Eastern Bengal Railway connecting Dhubri with Lalmonirhat, now in Bangladesh. The line was constructed with the following stations: Torsa, Dewanhat, Chawrahat, Gitaldaha and Gitaldaha Ghat. It was opened for goods traffic from 15 September 1893 and for passenger traffic from 1 March 1894. Cooch Behar town was connected after a bridge was built on the Torsa and the line was extended to Alipurduar, Buxa and Jayanti near the India–Bhutan border. The complete line measuring 53.5 miles was opened in 1901. It was converted to {{RailGauge|1000mm}}-wide metre gauge in 1910. The railway system was operated by Eastern Bengal Railway.{{cite web| url = http://wiki.fibis.org/index.php?title=Cooch_Behar_Railway |title =Cooch Behar Railway | publisher= fibis| accessdate = 2013-02-19 }}{{cite web| url = http://www.irfca.org/faq/faq-history3.html |title = IR History: Part III (1900-1947)|publisher=IRFCA | accessdate = 2013-02-19 }} In 1932, only two trains ran on the route – one in the morning and the other in the evening. In the early 1950s, the system was amalgamated with Indian Railways as a part of North Eastern Railway (now Northeast Frontier Railway).{{cite web|last=Banerjee|first=Ajai|title=Zonal Reorganization of IR Since Independence|url=http://www.irfca.org/articles/zonal-reorg.html|publisher=IRFCA|accessdate=23 February 2013}}
Conversion to broad gauge
The line was converted to {{Track gauge|5ft6in|lk=on}} broad gauge in 2007.{{cite web | url = http://wiki.iricen.gov.in/doku/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=11301:vps.pdf | title = Role of Engineering Deptt in Meeting Corporate Objectives of Indian Railways | first = V.P. | last = Srivastava | accessdate = 2013-02-21 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140330160317/http://wiki.iricen.gov.in/doku/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=11301:vps.pdf | archive-date = 30 March 2014 | url-status = dead }}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Railway lines in Eastern India}}
{{Cooch Behar topics}}
Category:2 ft 6 in gauge railways in India
Category:Metre-gauge railways in India
Category:Defunct railway companies of India
Category:History of rail transport in West Bengal