East Bengal Mail
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Service type | Mail train |
| Route | |
| Start | Sealdah |
| End | Parbatipur Junction |
| Service frequency | Daily |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) |
| Track gauge | Broad gauge 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) |
|---|
The East Bengal Mail was a railway train that was one of three train services running between India and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). The railway link was suspended at the outbreak of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.
Prior to 1965, when armed conflict broke out between India and Pakistan, rail links existed between India and East Pakistan. Three trains ran between the two countries carrying goods and passengers: (1) East Bengal Express between Sealdah and Goalundo Ghat via Gede-Darshana, (2) East Bengal Mail between Sealdah and Parbatipur Junction via Gede-Darshana, and (3) Barisal Express between Sealdah and Khulna via Petrapole-Benapole.
From 1878, the railway route from Kolkata, then called Calcutta, to Siliguri was in two legs through the eastern part of Bengal. The first leg was a 185 km journey along the Eastern Bengal State Railway from Calcutta Station (later renamed Sealdah) to Damookdeah Ghat on the southern bank of the Padma River, then across the river in a ferry and the second leg of the journey. A 336 km metre gauge line of the North Bengal Railway linked Saraghat on the northern bank of the Padma to Siliguri.
The 1.8 km long Hardinge Bridge across the Padma came up in 1912. Presently, it is between the Paksey and Bheramara stations on the broad gauge line between Khulna and Parbatipur in Bangladesh. In 1926 the metre-gauge section north of the bridge was converted to broad gauge, and so the entire Calcutta - Siliguri route became broad-gauge.
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