History

Barasat Basirhat Railway (BBR) was a gauge

Rail gauge

Track gauge or rail gauge is the distance between the inner sides of the heads of the two load bearing rails that make up a single railway line. Sixty percent of the world's railways use a standard gauge of . Wider gauges are called broad gauge; smaller gauges, narrow gauge. Break-of-gauge refers...

 railway

Rail transport

Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...

 line started by Martin & Co. in 1914 as part of their wide network of narrow gauge operations under the aegis of Martin's Light Railways

Martin's Light Railways

Martin's Light Railways was a private company operating railways in India. The routes on which trains were run by Martin's Light Railways are as shown below: gauge Howrah Maidan-Amta and Howrah-Shiakhala lines ....

. The line connected the two towns of Barasat

Barasat

Barasat is a city in the outskirts of Kolkata, West Bengal India and is the district head quarter of the district North 24 Parganas. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority. The town is an important railway and roadway junction...

 and Basirhat

Basirhat

Basirhat is a city and a municipality in North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India. Basirhat subdivisional town is located on the banks of Ichamati River.- History :...

 near Calcutta (now Kolkata), in West Bengal

West Bengal

West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

.

The line was closed in 1955, after Indian independence (in 1947), when all such privately run lines were taken over by the government

Government of India

The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...

 or were being closed.

But rather than suffer ignonimity and death, BBR got a fresh lease of life when Indian Railways placed the line under its Eastern Railways

Eastern Railway (India)

The Eastern Railway is one of the 17 zones of the Indian Railways. Its headquarters is at Fairley Place, Kolkata, and comprises four divisions: Howrah, Malda, Sealdah, and Asansol. These are the financial departments and each has an assistant divisional financial manager , divisional railway...

 zone under Sealdah

Sealdah

Sealdah is one of the major train stations serving Kolkata in India, the others being Howrah Station, Shalimar Station and Kolkata Railway Station. Sealdah is one of the busiest rail stations in India and an important suburban rail terminal...

 division and converted the route partly to broad gauge

Broad gauge

Broad-gauge railways use a track gauge greater than the standard gauge of .- List :For list see: List of broad gauges, by gauge and country- History :...

 in 1962. Later on, this route was fully restored to (Indian gauge

Indian gauge

Indian gauge is a track gauge commonly used in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Argentina and Chile. It is also the gauge that is used on BART , in northern California.- Scotland :...

) and local trains started plying the route.

Route

The entire route is now Broad gauge(5ft.6in)and distance between Barasat and Basirhat is 42 km.