The Assam Bengal Railway (ABR) was one of the pioneering railway companies in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

Headquartered Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top ...

in Chittagong, it functioned from 1892 to 1942.

History

Assam Bengal Railway was incorporated in 1892 to serve British-owned tea plantations in Assam. Assam Bengal Railway started construction of a railway track on the eastern side of

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predo ...

in 1891. A track between Chittagong and

Comilla Comilla (; bn, কুমিল্লা, Kumillā, ), officially spelled Cumilla, is the fifth largest city of Bangladesh and second largest in Chittagong division. It is the administrative centre of the Comilla District. The name Comilla wa ...

was opened to traffic in 1895. The Comilla-Akhaura-Kulaura-Badarpur section was opened in 1896–1898 and finally extended to

Lumding Lumding (Pron:/lʌmˈdɪŋ/) is a city with municipal board in Hojai district in the Indian state of Assam. Etymology The word 'Lumding' owes its roots to a couple of Dimasa words 'Lama' and 'Ding' connoting 'straight pathway'. The word ''L ...

in 1903. The Assam Bengal Railway constructed a branch line to Guwahati, connecting the city to the eastern line in 1900. The line was extended to Tinsukia in 1902 and it was also connected to Dibru-Sadiya Railway in 1903. In 1936, the company owned 205 locomotives, 588 coaches and 5922 goods wagons. Indian Railway Heritage Logo-05 – Bengal Assam Railway (NER)

On 1 January 1942 the Assam Bengal Railway combined with the

Eastern Bengal Railway The Eastern Bengal Railway (full name: "Eastern Bengal Railway Company"; shortened EBR) was one of the pioneering railway companies that operated from 1857 to 1942, in Bengal and Assam provinces of British India. History Formation The Eastern ...

to form the Bengal and Assam Railway.History
,

Bangladesh Railway Bangladesh Railway ( bn, বাংলাদেশ রেলওয়ে) is the state-owned rail transport agency of Bangladesh. It operates and maintains all railways in the country, and is overseen by the Directorate General of Bangladesh Ra ...

, People's Republic of Bangladesh, Retrieved: 2007-01-11 At time of the independence of India in 1947, Bengal and Assam Railway was split up and portions of the Bengal Assam Railway which lay in Assam and the Indian part of North Bengal became Assam Railway and

East Indian Railway The East Indian Railway Company, operating as the East Indian Railway (reporting mark EIR), introduced railways to East India and North India, while the Companies such as the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, South Indian Railway, Bombay, Baro ...

respectively. and the portions about 2,600 km long which fell within the boundary of erstwhile

East Pakistan East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Scheme, One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India ...

was named as Eastern Bengal Railway, the control remaining with the central Government of Pakistan. Later, with the effect from 1 February 1961, Eastern Bengal Railway was renamed as Pakistan Railway, and in 1962 it became

Pakistan Eastern Railway The Pakistan Eastern Railway ( ur, , bn, পাকিস্তান পূর্বাঞ্চলীয় রেলপথ) was one of two divisions of Pakistan Railways which operated between 1961 and 1971. The company was headquartered in ...

. With the emergence of Bangladesh, it became

with its headquarters at Dhaka. On 14 April 1952, the 2,857 km long Assam Railway and the

Oudh and Tirhut Railway The Oudh and Tirhut Railway was a Railway company operated in India. History On 1 January 1943, the Bengal and North Western Railway and the Rohilkund and Kumaon Railway (R&K worked) were acquired by the Government of India and they were am ...

were amalgamated to form one of the six newly carved zones of the Indian Railways: the

North Eastern Railway (India) The North Eastern Railway (abbreviated NER) is one of the 19 railway zones of Indian Railways in India. It is headquartered at Gorakhpur. Zonal Rail Training Institute (ZRTI) is established in district Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh. North Eastern ...

. On the same day, the reorganized Sealdah division of the erstwhile Bengal Assam Railway (which was added to the East Indian Railway earlier) was amalgamated with the Eastern Railway.

Classification

It was labeled as a Class I railway according to Indian Railway Classification System of 1926.

Conversion to broad gauge

The Indian part of ABR was converted to broad gauge in 1990s to 2010s. The Bangladesh part is under conversion to broad gauge.

References

External links

Bangladesh railway timeline
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Assam Bengal Railway Transport in Chittagong Transport in Guwahati Metre gauge railways in India Defunct railway companies of India Rail transport in Assam Rail transport in West Bengal Defunct railway companies of Bangladesh History of Assam History of rail transport in West Bengal Bengal Presidency