Sealdah South section consists of a set of four lines which connect the station in Kolkata with its southern suburbs and with the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, India. It is a part of the Kolkata Suburban Railway and is under the jurisdiction of the Sealdah railway division of the Eastern Railway zone of Indian Railways.
It is linked to the Sealdah Main and North section via the Kankurgachi Chord line at and via the Kolkata Circular Railway at .
It also connects to the Kolkata Dock System Railway (KDS Railway) at and respectively.
Services
The Sealdah South section consists of four lines:
Sealdah–Diamond Harbour line () Budge Budge branch line () Canning branch line () Namkhana branch line ()
The section is primarily a suburban section with a total of 334 daily services and 288 Sunday services serving the four lines of the section. A majority of the services are served by 12-car EMU rakes from the Sonarpur EMU Carshed. They are also served with a few 9-car EMU rakes from Narkeldanga EMU Carshed. There are many "Galloping local" services which only stop at important stations of a line.
The Gangasagar mela, which attracts thousands of pilgrims during Makar Sankranti in mid-January, and is held in Sagar Island is approached through the Namkhana branch line of this section. and railway stations serve as handy rail heads for travel to the mela. Eastern Railway runs a lot of special trains for the mela to cope with the increase in passenger traffic. There also are special trains from to via and .
The line has major interchange stations at and for the Circular line and at and with the Line 1 of Kolkata Metro. The under construction Line 2 and Line 3 of Kolkata Metro will provide major interchange stations at Sealdah and Majerhat as well. A new metro line from New Garia to Baruipur has been proposed as well.
This section connects to the Kolkata Port, via the KDS Railway, from where major freight commodities like containers, coal and fertilizers are loaded and transferred throughout the Indian Railways network.
History
Sealdah–Canning line
The Calcutta and South-Eastern Railway (CSER) was formed in 1859 to connect Calcutta with on the Matla River. It constructed and completed the long line on 15 May 1863. It was the first railway track on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River and ran from what was then the Beliaghata railway station (presently ) to on the Matla River via and .
In 1868, CSER having suffered extensive losses due to floods and other problems, sold the line to the Indian government (management then being leased to the Eastern Bengal Railway) and the company was dissolved in March 1870. Thus the line became a part of the Southern section of the Eastern Bengal Railway.
Post partition of India in 1947 and re-organisation of railway zones in 1952, the entire Southern section of Eastern Bengal Railway was amalgamated under the Sealdah division of Eastern Railway.
Sonarpur–Diamond Harbour line
While multiple feasibility reports and proposals, beginning from 1839, were made for the construction of a railway line between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour, no action were taken on these.
Finally in 1883, a branch line to Diamond Harbour via and Magrahat was constructed from on the Sealdah–Canning line of the Eastern Bengal Railway. This line, from Sealdah to Diamond Harbour, then became the main line of the Southern section of the Eastern Bengal Railway.
A small branch line was constructed in 1883, from Diamond Harbour to Hara Fort near the Hooghly River to transport goods and military supplies as well.
Ballygunge–Budge Budge line
The Budge Budge branch line was initially sanctioned in 1886 as a line to connect with the Kidderpore Docks. Sanction to an extension to Budge Budge was given in 1888 and the whole of long line from to via was opened on 1890 by the Eastern Bengal Railway.
The Calcutta Port Commissioners' Railway (CPCR) built a branch line from Kidderpore Docks to Majerhat on 1893. It further constructed a branch line from the subsidiary marshaling yard at to King George's Dock (renamed to Netaji Subhas Dock in 1973) in 1928.
Baruipur–Lakshmikantapur–Namkhana line
In 1928, a long line from on the Diamond Harbour branch line to via was constructed by the Eastern Bengal Railway and became a branch line of its Southern section.
In an effort to give access to remote areas and promote new growth areas, the long Lakshmikantapur–Namkhana line project was sanctioned in 1987-88 amongst other projects. The line was extended up to Kulpi by 1992 and was completed till Kakdwip by 2001. The Kakdwip–Namkhana section was completed by 2004.