Grand Chord


Grand Chord is part of the Howrah–Gaya–Delhi line and Howrah–Prayagraj–Mumbai line. It acts as a link between Sitarampur, and Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction, previously known as Mughalsarai Junction, and covers a stretch of. The Coal India Corridor line that branches off from Dhanbad Junction and rejoins the Grand Chord at Son Nagar Junction is another major coal loading hub. It is a fully electrified, quadruple line section from Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay to Son Nagar and double line section from Son Nagar to Sitarampur. There are plans to triple the lines from Son Nagar to Dhanbad to accommodate the increasing traffic.. The entire line lies under the jurisdiction of three divisions, Mughalsarai railway division, Dhanbad railway division and Asansol railway division. The Grand chord section is the lifeline of the country, 2nd busiest railway section of India after Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh to Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction, Uttar Pradesh Main Line section, on which coal, steel and other important goods are moved from Eastern section to Western and Northern sections of the country. In the down direction, the traffic consists of mostly food grains, fertilizers and empty wagons for coal loading in the Jharkhand and West Bengal coal fields. Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction is a transit division and the main objective is to maintain mobility of high density traffic. The present capacity of the Grand Chord is being optimally utilized. Traversing through Chota Nagpur Plateau of Jharkhand as well as parts of the fertile Gangetic plains of Bihar, the Grand Chord covers a stretch of. The Grand Chord is renowned for its remarkable controlling of passenger traffic, despite being burdened with freight traffic.
The railways first came to eastern India in 1854, and the Calcutta–Delhi railway link, with a distance of more than, became operational by 1866. With the increase in traffic it became necessary to construct an alternative route.
With this in view, the Grand Chord section was planned. The Grand Chord section was opened in December 1906 by Lord Minto, then Viceroy and Governor-General of India with a function at Gujahandi. With the opening of the Grand Chord route, the distance between Calcutta and Delhi was reduced by. The cost of construction was around.
The Grand Chord section is critically important even today, handling major passenger trains on the Howrah–Delhi route, particularly all the Rajdhani Expresses from Howrah, Bhubaneswar and Ranchi and the entire freight traffic, particularly coal, handled by the Dhanbad division of East Central Railway.

Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor

The Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor encompasses a double-line electrified traction corridor from Haldia on the Eastern Railway to Khurja on the North Central Railway via Grand Chord, Khurja to Dadri on NCR double-line electrified corridor and Single electrified line from Khurja to Ludhiana on Northern Railway. The total length works out to. So in the Grand Chord section its total 4 parallel track will be run to ease traffic movement on this busy route.
The EDFC will traverse 6 states and is projected to cater to a number of traffic streams – coal for the power plants in the northern region of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and parts of Rajasthan from the Eastern coal fields, finished steel, food grains, cement, fertilizers, limestone from Rajasthan to steel plants in the east and general goods. The total traffic in UP direction is projected to go up from 38 million tonnes in FY2005-06 to 116 million tonnes in FY2021–22.

Trains on the route

In, it was said that a goods train passes by every 20 minutes on the Grand Chord line. Now, the frequency has become around 5 minutes making it one of the busiest routes in India. More than 50 mail and express trains use this shorter route apart from 2 dozens of passenger trains.

Some important trains on the route

  1. Howrah Rajdhani Express
  2. Sealdah Rajdhani Express
  3. Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express
  4. Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express
  5. Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express
  6. Ranchi Rajdhani Express
  7. Ranchi Rajdhani Express
  8. Howrah–Ranchi Shatabdi Express
  9. Howrah–New Delhi Duronto Express
  10. Bhubaneswar–Duronto Express
  11. Sealdah–Bikaner Duronto Express
  12. Patna–Ranchi Vande Bharat Express
  13. Ranchi–Varanasi Vande Bharat Express
  14. Tatanagar–Patna Vande Bharat Express
  15. Howrah–Gaya Vande Bharat Express
  16. Sealdah-Jammu Tawi Humsafar Express
  17. Godda-New Delhi Humsafar Express
  18. Ranchi–New Delhi Garib Rath Express
  19. Howrah–Anand Vihar Yuva Express
  20. West Bengal Sampark Kranti Express
  21. Odisha Sampark Kranti Express
  22. Jharkhand Sampark Kranti Express
  23. Gaya–Anand Vihar Garib Rath Express
  24. Howrah–Gwalior Chambal Express
  25. Howrah–Jodhpur Express
  26. Ajmer–Sealdah Express
  27. Kalka Mail – The oldest running passenger train of India
  28. Poorva Express
  29. Garbha Express
  30. Howrah–Jaisalmer Superfast Express
  31. Purushottam Express
  32. Ara–Ranchi Express
  33. Parasnath Express
  34. Howrah–Gwalior Chambal Express
  35. Howrah–Agra Cantt/Mathura Chambal Express
  36. Howrah–Indore Junction Shipra Express
  37. Jharkhand Swarna Jayanti Express
  38. Mahabodhi Express
  39. Deekshabhoomi Express
  40. Gaya–Chennai Egmore Weekly Superfast Express
  41. Howrah–Bhopal Weekly Express
  42. Doon Express
  43. Neelachal Express
  44. Nandankanan Express
  45. Patna–Hatia Express
  46. Shalimar Express
  47. Pratap Express
  48. Black Diamond Express
  49. Coalfield Express
  50. Patna - Ranchi Janshatabdi Express
  51. Purnia Court - Hatia Kosi Express
  52. Sealdah–Amritsar Jallianwalla Bagh Express
  53. Tatanagar–Amritsar Jallianwalla Bagh Express
  54. Kolkata Mail via Allahabad
  55. Ganga Damodar Express
  56. Ganga Sutlej Express
  57. Kishanganj–Ajmer Garib Nawaz Express
  58. Howrah–Ranchi Intercity Express via Adra
  59. Dhanbad–Patna Intercity Express
  60. Dhanbad–Gaya Intercity Express
  61. Patna–Bhabua Road Intercity Express
  62. Howrah–Ranchi Intercity Express via Tatanagar
  63. Ranchi–Varanasi Express
  64. Ranchi–Kamakhya Express
  65. Shaktipunj Express
  66. Haldia–Anand Vihar Terminal Superfast Express
  67. Bhubaneswar–Anand Vihar Weekly Superfast Express via Sambalpur, Rourkela, Bokaro
  68. Shabd Bhedi Superfast Express
  69. Howrah–Lalkuan Express
  70. Durgiana Express
  71. Kolkata–Agra Cantonment Express
  72. Kolkata–Agra Cantonment Superfast Express
  73. Santragachi–Anand Vihar Superfast Express
  74. Jasidih–Pune weekly Express
  75. Shalimar-Gorakhpur Weekly Express
  76. Gaya-Lucknow Ekatmata Express
  77. Jasidih–Vasco-Da-Gama weekly Express