New Cooch Behar Junction railway station

New Cooch Behar junction railway station is the main railway station in the district of Cooch Behar.
It serves Cooch Behar city of the district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies under Alipurduar railway division.
It is a junction station on the New Jalpaiguri–New Bongaigaon section of the Barauni–Guwahati line, New Mal–Changrabandha–New Cooch Behar line and Alipurduar–Bamanhat branch line of Northeast Frontier Railway zone.

History

Cooch Behar had its first railway when Cooch Behar State Railway constructed the narrow gauge Geetaldaha-Jainti line in 1901. It was subsequently on the metre gauge Alipurduar-Bamanhat-Golokganj line. When Assam Link Project constructed the link through North Bengal, it used the longer New Jalpaiguri–Alipurduar–Samuktala Road line.
New Cooch Behar station came up when the broad gauge New Jalpaiguri–New Bongaigaon section of Barauni–Guwahati line was laid in 1966.
Before partition there was a railway link from to via and. Some part of this route passed through Bangladesh, between and Golokganj. There were two stations Pateswari and Sonahat which were in Bangladesh, these functioned even after partition. However, the collapse of the rail-cum-road bridge over the Gadadhar in the seventies ended that link. Now the bridge has been rebuilt and a new broad-gauge track has been laid, under New Maynaguri-Jogighopa Rail Project, via Tufangunj and Boxirhat, entirely through Indian territory. Dhubri-New Jalpaiguri Inter-city Express via Cooch Behar was introduced in February 2012. A new railway link from New Cooch Behar to New Jalpaiguri via Mathabhanga opened shortly.

Facilities

The entire compound of New Cooch Behar Railway Station is equipped with free high-speed Wi-Fi services provided by RailTel. New facilities include a Food Lounge, Air-Conditioned Dormitory and an Air-Conditioned Waiting Hall. The station has a One Station One Product outlet offering handmade jewellery, jute products and handloom textiles to provide a market for local and indigenous products.
To increase mobility among passengers especially physically challenged passengers, elevators have been installed in Platform 1, 2, 3 and 4. An escalator has also been installed in Platform 1 connecting to the foot overbridge.
Toilets are now equipped with modern sanitary fittings and have exclusive facilities for male, female and physically challenged. There are numerous Pay-and-Use Toilets in the station. Special Waiting halls for ladies have also been built.
IRCTC offers online booking of Dormitory rooms and also allows online food ordering. There are over bridges connecting the different platforms. There are displays all over the railway station and numerous food and magazine vendors in every platform.

Electrification

The Union Minister of Railways announced a long electrified section between New Jalpaiguri to New Cooch Behar. Northern Frontier Railways has made a significant achievement in providing a pollution-free green mode of transport as electrification of total of track has been completed during the financial year 2020–21, despite the COVID-19 epidemic, railway electrification work in various sections of the North Frontier Railway was being done rapidly. The Electrification was inspected by the Commissioner of Railway Safety of Northeast Frontier Railway zone. Test runs have been conducted in early 2021. As of September 2021, the station is fully electrified and electric trains are operational.

New Cooch Behar Junction railway station

History

Facilities

Electrification

Major trains