The
East Indian Railway (EIR) Company was incorporated in 1845 to connect eastern India with
Delhi. The first train ran here between and on 15 August 1854. The train left Howrah station at 8:30 a.m. and reached Hooghly in 91 minutes. The management of the East Indian Railway was taken over by the British Indian government on 1 January 1925. The Eastern Railway was formed on 14 April 1952 by amalgamating three lower divisions of the East Indian Railway: Howrah, Asansol and Danapur, the entire
Bengal Nagpur Railway (BNR) and the Sealdah division of the erstwhile
Bengal Assam Railway (which was already added to the East Indian Railway on 15 August 1947). On 1 August 1955, the portions of BNR stretching from Howrah to in the South which is now the Headquarters of
South Coast Railway zone, Howrah to Nagpur in the Central area and up to Katni in the North Central Region were separated from Eastern Railway and became the
South Eastern Railway. Three more divisions:
Dhanbad,
Mughalsarai and Malda were formed later. Till 30 September 2002 ER consisted seven divisions. On 1 October 2002 a new zone, the
East Central Railway, headquarters at
Hajipur, was carved out by separating the Eastern Railway's
Danapur,
Dhanbad and
Mughalsarai divisions from it. while in 2022, its entire network of 2848 km was electrified with the conversion of the
Hansdiha-
Godda section. ==Divisions==