Cooch Behar State Railway The
Cooch Behar State Railway (CBSR) was a
narrow gauge railway line that was built between
Jayanti in the current
Alipurduar district of West Bengal, India to
Lalmonirhat in the current
Lalmonirhat district in Bangladesh before
partition between 1893 and 1898. The line originated from
Jayanti near the foothills of
Eastern Himalayas and went via
Alipurduar,
Cooch Behar,
Dinhata and
Gitaldaha to finally join the
narrow-gauge track of
Kaunia–Dharlla State Railway at
Mogalhat. This line was later brought by
Eastern Bengal Railway in 1899.
Eastern Bengal Railway The
Kaunia–Dharlla State Railway was constructed as a narrow-gauge line from Teesta railway junction to Mogalhat in 1882 by
Eastern Bengal Railway. As a part of linking with the long Katihar–Raiganj–Dinajpur–Parbatipur–Rangpur–Kaunia main metre-gauge line the Kaunia–Mogalhat–Gitaldaha NG section was converted to metre gauge from 1901 to 1902. The long Gitaldaha-Golakganj section was built as a part of the main metre-gauge line in 1902 via
Bamanhat & Sonahat. This metre-gauge line was further extended to
Amingaon via
Fakiragram &
Kokrajhar in 1906. The Jayanti–
Gitaldaha junction section was converted to metre gauge in 1910.
Post Partition With the
partition of India in 1947, the Assam links to Bengal were snapped. Further the Gitaldaha–Mogalhat rail transit point became defunct as floods washed away the railway bridge over
Dharla River. The Alipurduar–Bamanhat section and the Fakiragram-Golakganj section were cut off as well and became isolated metre gauge sections. As a part of the Assam Link project a line was constructed between
Kishanganj and
Fakiragram in 1948. Thus these 2 sections became branch lines. Fakiragram was connected with a new line via Boxirhat to New Coochbehar in 2010–12. ==Gauge conversion==