New Gitaldaha railway station is on the broad-gauge Alipurduar–Bamanhat branch line. Gitaldaha was a railway station and is a defunct rail transit point on the India–Bangladesh border in

Cooch Behar district Cooch Behar district () is a district of Indian state of West Bengal. Formerly part of the Kamarupa kingdom, the area became the heart of the Kamata Kingdom in the 12th century. During the British Raj, the district was known as Cooch Behar st ...

in the Indian state of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

. The corresponding point on the Bangladesh side is Mogalhat in

Lalmonirhat District Lalmonirhat ( bn, লালমনিরহাট জেলা, ''Lalmonirhat Jela'' also ''Lalmonirhat Zila'') is a district, situated at the northern border of Bangladesh. It is a part of the Rangpur Division. Lalmonirhat mahakuma was establishe ...

Railway links

The area was agog with railway activity in the 19th–20th century. The Assam Behar State Railway linked Parbatipur to

Katihar Katihar is a city situated in the eastern part of the state of Bihar in India. It is the regional headquarter of Katihar district. It is one of the important cities of Bihar. Also it's a main route of Delhi - Guwahati railway line. History Ka ...

, with a

metre-gauge Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, la ...

line in 1889. In the early 1900s, 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 ...

extended railways to

Lalmonirhat Lalmonirhat ( bn, লালমনিরহাট) is a town and district headquarters of Lalmonirhat District in the division of Rangpur, Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in Sout ...

, Gitaldaha (via Mogalhat),

Bamanhat Bamanhat is a neighbourhood and a gram panchayat in the Dinhata II CD block in the Dinhata subdivision of the Cooch Behar district, West Bengal, India. Geography Location Bamanhat is located at . Bamanhat I and Bamanhat II are gram pancha ...

Golokganj Golokganj (also spelt as Golakganj or Galakganj) is a census town in Dhubri district in the Indian state of Assam. Golakganj is one of the historical places of Dhubri district. Geography Golakganj is located at . It has an average elevation of ...

and other places, thereby connecting Assam to Katihar, in Bihar, via North Bengal. In 1901

Cooch Behar State Railway Cooch Behar State Railway (CBSR) was a 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. After so ...

built the

narrow-gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...

line from Gitaldaha to Jayanti, near the Bhutan border. Shortly thereafter, the line was upgraded to meter gauge. The Lalmonirhat–Mogalhat–Gitaldaha route was functional when India and Pakistan agreed in 1955 for resumption of railway traffic between the two countries, and it included movement of cross traffic via Mogalhat through the Eastern Bengal Railway. A portion of the bridge across the Dharla River at was washed away by floods in 1988. Prior to the

partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

, the prestigious Assam Mail used to travel from

Santahar Santahar ( bn, সান্তাহার) is a railway junction in Adamdighi Upazila in Bogra District of Rajshahi Division in Bangladesh. History From 1878, the railway route from Kolkata, then called Calcutta, to Siliguri was in two laps. T ...

Guwahati Guwahati (, ; formerly rendered Gauhati, ) is the biggest city of the Indian state of Assam and also the largest metropolis in northeastern India. Dispur, the capital of Assam, is in the circuit city region located within Guwahati and is the ...

. The conversion of the 72 km-long Alipurduar–Bamanhat branch line to

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

in 2007, and its subsequent recommissioning, had a station at New Gitaldaha. New Gitaldaha railway station serves

Gitaldaha Gitaldaha is a village and a gram panchayat in the Dinhata I CD block in the Dinhata subdivision of the Cooch Behar district in the state of West Bengal, India. Geography Location Gitaldaha is located at . Gitaldaha I and Gitaldaha II are g ...

and the surrounding areas. The map alongside presents the position as it stands today (2020). The international border was not there when the railways were first laid in the area in the 19th-20th century. It came up in 1947. Since then, it has been an effort to live up to the new realities. The map is 'interactive' (the larger version) - it means that all the places shown in the map are linked in the full screen map.

References

{{Railway stations in West Bengal Railway stations in Cooch Behar district Defunct railway stations in India