Eastern Railway

Eastern Railway was constituted on 14th April, 1952 by integration of the East Indian Railway consisting of Sealdah, Howrah, Asansol and Danapur Divisions and the whole Bengal – Nagpur Railway.

Later, the part of BNR stretching from Howrah to Visakhapatnam in the South, Howrah to Nagpur in the Central area and upto Katni in the North Central Region were disjointed from Eastern Railway and formed as “South Eastern Railway” with effect from 1st August 1955.
After redistribution and construction of new lines over a time period, Eastern Railway as on 30th September 2002, extended over 4245.61 kilometers.
On 01-10-2002, three divisions viz. Dhanbad, Mughalsarai and Danapur were disunited from Eastern Railway to create new East Central Railway zone with headquarters at Hajipur. Eastern Railway now comprises of 2493 Route Kilometers spread over four divisions’ viz. Sealdah, Howrah, Asansol and Malda out of which 1405 route kilometers are electrified on 25 KV AC traction.

Jurisdiction

The Divisional Headquarters and the States served by these four Divisions are shown as under:

Sl. No.	Name of Division and Headquarters	Route Kilometer	States Served
01	Sealdah	717 + 27(NG)	West Bengal
02	Howrah	697 + 106(NG)	West Bengal and Jharkhand
03	Asansol	493	West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand
04	Malda	453	West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand

Eastern Railway reaches Bangladesh border in the East upto Lalgola, Benapole and Gede. Malda and Kiul to the North, Namkhana near Ganga Sagar to the South and Asansol and Jhajha in the West.
Setting out from Howrah, the trunk route of Eastern Railway runs 221 kms. to Sitarampur from where it leads to two directions towards Delhi, one via Patna and other via Dhanbad – Gaya. Both these routes meet once again at Mughalsarai Station of East Central Railway. Adjacent railways are North East Frontier Railway to the north, East Central Railway to the west and South Eastern Railway to the south.
The area functioned by Eastern Railway is important to the economy of the country, as apart from serving the most densely populated region in the country, this Railway processes the area rich in minerals, agriculture and industry.
This Railway has three major Workshops situated at

•  Jamalpur for wagon repairs (4442 Vehicle Unit), periodic overhaul (POH) of diesel locomotives (80 Vehicle Unit), manufacturing of wagons (527 per annum), 140 ton cranes, tower-wagons and whiting jacks;
•  Liluah for POH of coaching (2503 vehicle unit) & freight (1340 vehicle unit) vehicles;
• Kanchrapara for POH of electric locomotives (78 per annum), EMU Locals (993 vehicle unit) and repair of coaches (480 VU).

http://www.er.indianrailways.gov.in