The Santahar–Kaunia line is a

dual-gauge In railway engineering, "gauge" is the transverse distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of two rails, which for the vast majority of railway lines is the number of rails in place. However, it is sometimes necessary for track to ca ...

railway line connecting

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 ...

and

Kaunia ''Kaunia'' is a genus of South American shrubs or small trees in the family Asteraceae. Its range is centered in Bolivia but it is also found in Argentina, southern Brazil, Peru and Ecuador. Genus is named for Edward Kaun of Baltimore, Maryland ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

, under the jurisdiction of

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 ...

. From 1878 to 2010 it was a single line of

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 ...

. Between 2010 and 2013, Bangladesh Railway converted the track to also include a line, with help of

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...

History

The Brahmaputra–Sultanpur Railway Company constructed the metre-gauge railway track from Santahar to Fulchhari (Tistamukh) in 1899–1900. Presently the line is up to Balashi Ghat in Phulchhari Upazila. The Bonarpara–Kaunia line was constructed in 1905.

Assam Mail

The prestigious Assam Mail originally ran along this track in the British days from Santahar to Amingaon.

Ferry

In Bangladesh, ferries are often an integrated part of the railway system. There were two major ferry points across the Jamuna, one between Bahadurabad Ghat and Tistamukh Ghat and the other between Jagannath Ghat and Sirajganj Ghat. The ferry system had reached the limits of its capacity. While marginal capacity additions were still feasible, to cope with any significant increase in capacity or even normal traffic growth was virtually felt to be impossible. The construction of the

Bangabandhu Bridge Bangabandhu Bridge, also known as the Jamuna Multi-purpose Bridge ( bn, যমুনা বহুমুখী সেতু ''Jomuna Bohumukhi Setu'') is a bridge opened in Bangladesh in June 1998. It connects Bhuapur on the Jamuna River's east b ...

has completely changed the scope of communication systems in that part of the country. The ferry system at both the Bahadurabad Ghat–Balashi Ghat and the Jagannathganj Ghat–Sirajganj Ghat was virtually closed. Only limited freight transportation continued on the Bahadurabad Ghat–Balashi section. Even that has been closed down in 2010 because of formation of shoal in the river.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santahar-Kaunia line Railway lines opened in 1878 Metre gauge railways in Bangladesh