The East Central Railway (abbreviated ECR) is one of the 19 railway zones in India. It is headquartered at

Hajipur Hajipur (, ) is the headquarters and largest city of Vaishali district of the state of Bihar in India. Hajipur is the 16th most populous city of Bihar, besides being the second-fastest developing city, next to Patna. It had a total population ...

and comprises Sonpur,

Samastipur Samastipur is a city and a municipal corporation (nagar nigam) in Bihar, India. It is the headquarter of Samastipur district and comes under Darbhanga division. The Budhi Gandak river flows through the town. It is one of the five railway divisi ...

Danapur Danapur is a Indian satellite town and one of the 6 sub-divisions (Tehsil) in Patna district of Bihar state.Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, and

Dhanbad Dhanbad is the second-most populated city in the Indian state of Jharkhand after Jamshedpur. It ranks as the 42nd largest city in India and is the 33rd largest million-plus urban agglomeration in India. Dhanbad shares its land borders with Pa ...

divisions. ECR Headquarter

History

First set up on 8 September 1996 with headquarters at Hajipur, Bihar, East Central Railway became operational on 1 October 2002 by carving out areas from Eastern and

North Eastern Railway zone 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 ...

s currently consists of the divisions viz. Dhanbad, Danapur, Mughalsarai of Eastern Railway and Sonpur and Samastipur of North Eastern Railway. The last 13 years of its existence has been full of challenges and every obstacle was dealt in a dedicated manner despite constraints of work force and infrastructure. ECR, has a vast network of 5402.693 track kilometers and 3707.988 route kilometers encompassing the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Out of the route, have been electrified. ECR has been lifeline for the people in its expanse and is playing a pivotal role in rapid development of the area. The development of infrastructure has been the major thrust area to bring about a rapid growth rate in the region and prosperity to the people. In the field of construction of new lines, doubling, gauge conversion, construction of bridges/road-over bridges, new workshop projects, Other than this qualitative and perceptible improvement in safety, cleanliness, catering, passenger amenities have been achieved to a large extent. ECR is unique in the sense that both Goods loading and Passenger traffic assume great importance in view of the huge coal loading in the coal bearing of Dhanbad division of Jharkhand state and densely populated area of Bihar. The rapid growth in both the sectors has necessitated strengthening of infrastructure of Railways. Further ECR also has uniqueness of acting as a gateway to Nepal with International traffic catering to the movement of export traffic and passengers to Nepal and vice versa.

Passenger business

This Railway has carried 2159.08 lakh passengers in the year up to January 2015. With the running of regular express trains and passenger trains per day, besides special trains during the period April 2014 to January 2015, better traffic facilities has provided to passengers. With the increase of 5.78%, East Central Railway has registered a significant increase under gross earnings by 9774.21 crore as compared to the corresponding month of last year i.e. 9240.17 crore.

Divisions

Sonpur railway division Sonpur railway division is one of the five railway divisions under East Central Railway zone of Indian Railways. History Sonpur division was established on 21 Oct. 1978 in North Eastern Railway zone. The ECR zone came into existence on 8 Se ...

Danapur railway division Danapur railway division is one of the five divisions of East Central Railway (ECR), a zone of the Indian Railways located at Danapur in Patna district of Bihar state in eastern India. The other railway divisions are Sonpur, Samastipur, Mughals ...

Dhanbad railway division Dhanbad railway division is one of the five railway divisions under East Central Railway zone of Indian Railways. It stands No.1 in revenue earning among all the divisions in Indian Railways. This railway division was formed on 5 November 1951 an ...

Mughalsarai railway division Mughalsarai railway division, officially known as Deen Dayal Upadhyaya railway division, is one of the five railway divisions under East Central Railway zone of Indian Railways. This railway division was formed on 5 November 1951 and its headquar ...

Samastipur railway division Samastipur railway division is one of the five railway divisions under East Central Railway zone of Indian Railways. This railway division was formed in 1969 and its headquarter is located at Samastipur in the state of Bihar of India. Danapur ra ...

Routes

Lines

Howrah–Delhi main line The Howrah–Delhi main line is a railway line connecting Delhi and Kolkata cutting across northern India. The railway line was opened to traffic in 1866 with the introduction of the "1 Down/2 Up Mail" train. Sections The long trunk line, ha ...

Grand Chord Grand Chord is part of the Howrah–Gaya–Delhi line and Howrah–Allahabad–Mumbai line. It acts as a link between Sitarampur, (Asansol), (West Bengal) and Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction, Uttar Pradesh, previously known as Mughalsarai Jun ...

Barauni–Guwahati line The Barauni–Guwahati railway line connects Barauni, Saharsa, Purnia and Katihar in the Indian state of Bihar and in Assam via Siliguri, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and Alipurduar in West Bengal. It is a linkage of prime importance for Northeast ...

* Barauni–Samastipur–Muzaffarpur–Hajipur line * Muzaffarpur–Gorakhpur line (via Hajipur, Raxaul and Sitamarhi) *

Muzaffarpur–Gorakhpur main line The Muzaffarpur–Gorakhpur line via Narkatiaganj and Sagauli is a railway line connecting Muzaffarpur in the Indian state of Bihar to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. The line passes through the plains of North Bihar and the Gangetic Plain of Biha ...

Sitamarhi–Jaynagar–Nirmali line (via Sursand) Sitamarhi-Jaynagar-Nirmali Via Sursand Railway Line is a proposed railway line in East Central Railway zone by Indian Railway. It was announced by Former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in 2007. He laid the foundation inauguration of this propose ...

Gaya–Kiul line The Gaya–Kiul line is a railway line connecting Gaya on the Howrah–Gaya–Delhi line and Kiul on the Howrah–Delhi main line both in the Indian state of Bihar. History Several years before the Grand Chord was built, a connection from th ...

Patna–Gaya line The Patna–Gaya line is a railway line connecting Patna on the Howrah–Delhi main line and Gaya on the Howrah–Gaya–Delhi line both in the Indian state of Bihar. History Gaya was connected to Patna in 1900 by East Indian Railway Company. ...

Bakhtiyarpur–Tilaiya line The Bakhtiyarpur–Tilaiya line is a railway line connecting Bakhtiyarpur on the Howrah–Delhi main line and on the Gaya–Kiul line both in the Indian state of Bihar. History The line has its origins in Bakhtiyarpur–Bihar Sharif light r ...

Sections

Asansol–Patna section The Asansol–Patna section is a railway line connecting in the Indian state of West Bengal and Patna in Bihar. The line passes through the fringe areas of West Bengal, a portion of Santhal Parganas in Jharkhand and the Gangetic Plain in Bihar ...

Patna–Mughalsarai section The Patna–Mughalsarai section is a railway line connecting in the Indian state of Bihar and in Uttar Pradesh. History The first rail track between Howrah and Delhi was via what was later named as Sahibganj loop and the first through train o ...

Barauni–Katihar section The Barauni–Katihar, Saharsa and Purnia sections of the Barauni–Guwahati line connects Barauni, Saharsa, Purnia and Katihar in the Indian state of Bihar . History Early developments Railway development on the northern side of the Ganges i ...

* Samastipur–Muzaffarpur section *

Muzaffarpur–Sitamarhi section The Muzaffarpur–Sitamarhi section is a railway line connecting Muzaffarpur to Sitamarhi in the Indian state of Bihar. The line passes through the plains of North Bihar. History The foundation for this project was laid by the then railway mi ...

Muzaffarpur–Hajipur section The Muzaffarpur–Hajipur section is an electrified double railway line connecting Muzaffarpur to Hajipur in the Indian state of Bihar. The line passes through the plains of North Bihar and the Gangetic Plain in Bihar. Electrification Former ...

Barauni–Samastipur section The Barauni–Samastipur section is a railway line connecting Barauni to Samastipur in the Indian state of Bihar. The line passes through the plains of North Bihar and the Gangetic Plain in Bihar. Electrification Former Railway Minister Lalu ...

Arrah Arrah (also transliterated as Ara) is a city and a municipal corporation in Bhojpur district, India, Bhojpur district (formerly known as Shahabad district) in the Indian state of Bihar. It is the headquarters of Bhojpur district, located near ...

–Sasaram section *

Patna–Sonepur–Hajipur section The Patna–Sonepur–Hajipur section is a railway line connecting Patna to Hajipur in the Indian state of Bihar. The line passes through the Digha–Sonpur rail–road bridge, connecting South Bihar and North Bihar, and the Gangetic Plain i ...

Loco sheds

Electric Loco Shed, Gomoh Electric Loco Shed, Gomoh is a motive power depot performing locomotive maintenance and repair facility for electric locomotives of the Indian Railways, located at Gomoh of the East Central Railway zone in Jharkhand, India. Locomotives Refe ...

* Diesel & Electric Loco Shed, Samastipur * Electric & Diesel Loco Shed, Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (Mughalsarai) * Electric Loco Shed, Barauni * Electric & Diesel Loco Shed, Patratu

Workshops

Samastipur Workshop

Samastipur Workshop was established in the year 1881 for overhauling of Steam locomotives, POH of coaches and wagons. It was remodelled in 1962 for manufacture of MG wagons. In 1993, manufacturing of BOXN wagons started @1 wagon per month, in addition to the existing activity of wagon POH. POH activity of MG wagons was discontinues in June 1996 and since then this workshop is primarily engaged in production of BOXN wagons. The manufacturing of BOXNHS wagons started in June 2002. At present, the workshop is engaged in manufacturing of Stainless Steel BOXNHL wagons.

Carriage Repair Workshop, Harnaut

ECR had no carriage repair workshop and was totally dependent on ER and NER. In order to be self-reliant and improve efficiency, workshop for overhauling of 50 coaches per month has been set up at Harnaut on Bakhtiyarpur-Rajgir section of Danapur division of East Central Railway. The workshop is spread over 75 acres of land and there is scope for future expansion. The workshop was taken over by ECR on 15 June 2012, and since then it has carried out POH of 367 Non-AC ICF coaches. Its present outturn is 25 coaches per month. The workshop is expected to reach its installed capacity in 2015–16 and in future there is plan to repair air-conditioned coaches as well.

Infrastructure

Rajendra Setu, Begusarai

Rajendra Setu, or Simaria Bridge, is a bridge across the

Ganges The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

that was the first to link the northern and southern portions of the state of

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

. The location of the bridge was based on the work of

M. Visvesvaraya Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (15 September 1861 – 12/14 April 1962), also referred to by his initials, MV, was an Indian civil engineer, administrator, and statesman, who served as the 19th Diwan of Mysore from 1912 to 1918. Visvesvaraya ...

, who was more than 90 years old at the time. In a wheelchair, he visited the bridge site on the special request of Bihar's chief minister,

Shri Krishna Sinha Shri Krishna Sinha (21 October 1887 – 31 January 1961), also known as Shri Babu, was the first chief minister of the Indian state of Bihar (1946–61). Except for the period of World War II, Sinha was the chief minister of Bihar from the time ...

. It was the first bridge over the Ganges to be built in independent

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

(after 1947).In the entire east to west stretch of about of river Ganga in Bihar, there is a rail-cum road bridge at Varanasi and then the downstream if we go the nearest Rail link across river Ganga was available at Mokama-Simaria, at Mokama (Rajendra Bridge) which is from Varanasi. The road-cum-rail bridge near Hathidah in

Patna district Patna district is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar state in eastern India. Patna, the capital of Bihar, is the district headquarters. The Patna district is a part of Patna division. The Patna district is divided into 6 Sub-divisions ( ...

and

Simaria Simaria is a village in India, along the Ganges river. It is in Begusarai District, Mithila region of Bihar, and near Barauni. Hindi poet Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar' was born on 23 September 1908 in Simaria village, then part of Bengal Presidency, ...

Begusarai district Begusarai District is one of the thirty-eight districts of the Indian state of Bihar. The city of Begusarai is its administrative headquarters and is part of the Munger division. History Begulsarai was established in 1870 as part of Munger Dist ...

was inaugurated in 1959 by

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

, prime minister of India, and Shri Krishna Sinha. The bridge was constructed by

Braithwaite, Burn & Jessop Construction Company The Braithwaite Burn & Jessop Construction Company Limited (BBJ Construction Company) is a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) of the Government of India under Department of Heavy Industries. Established on 26 January 1935, BBJ Construction Company ...

. It is about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) long and carries a two-lane road and a single-line railway track.

Rail-cum-Road Bridge, Patna

The Mokama-Simaria rail link was already saturated and become a major bottleneck for increasing the number of trains between North and South Bihar. This has been a great hindrance in the industrialization of North Bihar and Nepal, which have become the important trade centre for consumable goods. Construction of Rail-cum-Road Bridge would remove the bottle-neck and both parts of Bihar will be connected by more number of trains. Trade centers of North Bihar will also be connected with the rest part of Bihar. Power houses at Barauni and Kanti who are under going expansion in North Bihar shall also be benefitted due to lessened congestion . The work of Ganga Rail Bridge at Patna was included in 1997–98 when the proposal was only for the Rail bridge but in 2006–07 the scope was increased to Rail cum Road Bridge. It was the longest Rail cum Road bridge. The dilapidated condition of the road bridge connecting North and South Bihar in Patna (Mahatma Gandhi Setu), warrants for immediate arrangement of alternate road bridge. Understanding the problem, in the year 2005, in September 2006 scope of the project was enlarged and Rail bridge was converted into Rail cum Road bridge. The bridge would be second longest Rail-cum-Road Bridge in India with total length of 4556m. The bridge consists of 38 spans. The Road of the bridge is connecting NH-31 of North Bihar to NH-80 of South Bihar. Gladly, work on all the 38 Spans of this mega structure was completed by December 2014. The construction of bridge was completed by 2016 and it was inaugurated by the Honourable Prime Minister of India in March 2016.

Rail-cum-Road Bridge, Munger

No road bridge across River Ganges is available between Mokama and Bhagalpur for a distance of about . The only rail link available across river Ganga in Bihar was Rajendra Bridge at Mokama. Similar is the situation for Road Bridge also. Rail-cum-Road Bridge at Munger has a revised cost of Rs. 2363 crore, in which Rs. 1116 crore share with State Government and Rs. 1247 crore share with Railway. Rail link of the bridge is connecting Jamalpur station of Sahebganj loop (Maldah Division) of Eastern Railway to Sahibpur Kamal station (Barauni-Katihar section) of East Central Railway. The bridge is 3190 m long. All the 31 spans of this bridge have been completed by December 2014. The railway part of the bridge was inaugurated in the year 2016 by the Prime Minister of India but the road took more 6 years and was inaugurated in the 2022.

Kosi Bridge

In the year 1887, a meter gauge rail link between Nirmali and Bhaptiahi (Saraigarh) to Pratapganj up to river Kosi was provided by the Bengal North West Railway. Due to severe Ino-Nepal earthquake on 15 January 1934 (and regular flooding by river Kosi which was changing course towards West) this rail link along with Raharia railway station washed away in heavy flood owing to meandering nature of river Kosi thus from 1934 to 1956 railway section from Supaul-Pratapganj & Nirmali become non existent. (Indian Railway Map of 1942-43 ) (Indian Railway Map of 1956 ) And no attempt was made to restore this link for a long period. The Kosi Rail Bridge project included in the budget in the year 2003–04 at an estimated cost of Rs. 323 Crore. After the construction of Kosi Rail Bridge, the distance between Nirmali and Saraigarh (Bhaptiahi) will get reduced to from present . It will provide an alternative BG route of length between Gorakhpur and Katihar via Darbhanga against the existing route of via Chhapra and Barauni, which at present is a highly saturated corridor. This project gained exceptional significance as Silchar to Porbandar East West Corridor from Muzaffarpur to Purnia (NH 27) of NHAI shares the same location for crossing the river. The bridge is long with 36 spans.

New Sone Railway Bridge

This bridge was constructed during the year 1898. Due to introduction of clause of MBG-1987 loading, the existing bridge became the major constraint and necessitated the construction of a new alternate bridge. Traffic on this route will increase considerably when the third line between Dehri-On-Sone and Mughalsarai will become operational. The New Sone Bridge between Dehri-on-Sone and Sonenagar which has been successfully commissioned on 16 August 2014, will prove a great help in this regard.

Gandak Bridge

A new second bridge on river Gandak has been opened () between Sonpur and Hajipur for double line traffic for this section.

References

External links

East Central Railway website
{{coord missing, Bihar Zones of Indian Railways