Goalundo Ghat (also spelled Goalanda and Goalondo; ) is a small town and pourasabha in Goalandaghat Upazila,

Rajbari District Rajbari District () is a district in central Bangladesh, located in Dhaka Division. It is a part of the Padma Division, Greater Faridpur subregion of Bengal due to the historical and cultural identities of its inhabitants, with Kushtia border on th ...

Dhaka Division Dhaka Division () is an Divisions of Bangladesh, administrative division of Bangladesh. Dhaka serves as the capital city of Dhaka Division, the Dhaka District and Bangladesh. The division remains as a population magnet, and covers an area of 20, ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

. There are two railway stops in the town, one at Goalundo Ghat and one at Goalundo Bazar. The town has an area of 4.86 km² and a population of 22,000 inhabitants (2001 estimate).

Historical significance

The Eastern Bengal Railway opened the line from

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

to Goalundo, on the southern bank of the Padma in 1871. The Biswas Bari estate dominated the farmland around the river port. Goalundo was for many years a major transportation hub for travel in eastern parts of Bengal and Assam. Here is a brief on the importance of Goalundo Ghat in earlier years: “If one goes from Calcutta to Dacca the rail journey is broken at Goalundo and from there to

Narayanganj Narayanganj () is a city in central Bangladesh in the Greater Dhaka area. It is in the Narayanganj District, about southeast of the capital city of Dhaka. With a population of almost 1 million, it is the 6th largest city in Bangladesh. It is als ...

is continued by steamer. The night mail from Calcutta deposits one at Goalundo in the early hours of the morning. It is situated at the junction of the Padma, or Ganges, and the Brahmaputra, and daily services of steamers connect it with the railway systems at

and Chandpur, and with the steamer services to Madaripur,

Barisal Barisal ( or ; , ), officially known as Barishal, is a major city that lies on the banks of the Kirtankhola river in south-central Bangladesh. It is the largest city and the administrative headquarter of both Barisal District and Barisal Divi ...

Sylhet Sylhet (; ) is a Metropolis, metropolitan city in the north eastern region of Bangladesh. It serves as the administrative center for both the Sylhet District and the Sylhet Division. The city is situated on the banks of the Surma River and, as o ...

, and

Cachar Cachar district is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. After independence, the pre-existing undivided Cachar district was split into four districts: Dima Hasao (formerly North Cachar Hills), Hailakandi, Karimganj, and the ...

. There are also daily services of steamers up the Padma to Digha Ghat,

Patna Patna (; , ISO 15919, ISO: ''Paṭanā''), historically known as Pataliputra, Pāṭaliputra, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, ...

in the dry season, and

Buxar Buxar is a nagar parishad city in the state of Bihar, India, sharing border with Balia and Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh. It is the headquarters of the eponymous Buxar district, as well as the headquarters of the community development ...

in the rains, and up the Brahmaputra to

Dibrugarh Dibrugarh () is a city in the Indian state of Assam, located 435 kms east of the state capital Dispur. It serves as the headquarters of the Dibrugarh district in Upper Assam. Dibrugarh also serves as the headquarters of the Sonowal Kach ...

. From that it will be seen that Goalundo occupies a very strong strategic position in the waterways of Bengal, a position which has been made much stronger by railway development." Even after partition of India in 1947, the East Bengal Express ran up to 1964. That was the last direct link with Kolkata. The Goalundo Ghat railway link has since been used only for internal travel in Bangladesh.

Changing scenario

Bus/road travel has since gained primary importance in Bangladesh. Most people use buses for travel from Dhaka and other places to Benapole and then cross over the border for links to

. For a long time road transport has been using the Daulatdia-Paturia ferry crossing nearby. The ferry also carries long-distance buses across the Padma. The Government of Bangladesh has invited in November 2011 international tenders for the construction of the 6.1 km long second bridge across the Padma connecting Paturia and Daulatdia on a public-private partnership basis at a cost of 2 billion dollars.

References

External links

{{commons category
Goalonda Ghat
in Encyclopædia Britannica Populated places in Dhaka Division