2402:3A80:A6A:7258:0:4A:6A03:C101 at 20:33, 14 January 2022

2022-01-14T20:33:48Z

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{{Short description|Indian railway branch}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=December 2018}}
{{Infobox company
|name = Bengal Nagpur Railway
|logo = Bengal Nagpur Railway Logo.jpg
|type =
|foundation =1887
|location_city = [[Kolkata]]
|location_country = [[India]]
|location =
|locations = 
|key_people =
|area_served = Eastern and Central India
|industry = [[Railways]]
|products =
|services = [[Rail transport]]
|revenue =
|operating_income =
|net_income =
|num_employees =
|parent =
|divisions =
|subsid =Bengal Nagpur Railway
|caption =
|homepage =
|dissolved = 1952 (Merged with [[East Indian Railway Company]] to form [[Eastern Railway Zone (India)|Eastern Railway]])
|footnotes =
|intl =
}}
[[File:BNR Office, Garden Reach.jpg|thumb|250 px|Bengal Nagpur Railway (BNR) Headquarters, now South Eastern Railway (SER) headquarters, [[Garden Reach]], [[Kolkata]]]]
[[File:Beyer Garratt 6594.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A [[Beyer, Peacock and Company|Beyer]] [[Garratt]] 6594 Engine of Bengal Nagpur Railway at the [[National Rail Museum, New Delhi|National Rail Museum]]]]
[[File:BNR House.jpg|thumb|250 px|BNR House, residence of the GM of SER]]
[[File:Certificate of Farewell Mr. Bhagabati Charan Ghosh.jpg|alt=Certificate of Farewell to Mr. Bhagabati Charan Ghosh from The Officers and Staff of the Agent's Office & of the Employee's Urban Bank at his farewell ceremony on 23 December 1920|thumb|Certificate of Farewell to Mr. Bhagabati Charan Ghosh from The Officers and Staff of the Agent's Office & of the Employee's Urban Bank at his farewell ceremony on 23 December 1920]]
The '''Bengal Nagpur Railway''' was one of the companies which pioneered development of the railways in eastern and central India. It was succeeded first by [[Eastern Railway Zone|Eastern Railway]] and subsequently by [[South Eastern Railway Zone|South Eastern Railway]].

==History==
The opening of the [[Mumbai]]–[[Thane]] line in 1853 marked the beginning of railways in India. Extension of the railways was set off throughout the country. On the north-eastern side of Mumbai, the [[Great Indian Peninsular Railway]] line was extended up to [[Bhusawal]] and then split in two. While one track led to [[Nagpur]], the other to [[Jabalpur]] to connect with the [[East Indian Railway Company|East Indian Railway]] line from Allahabad to Jabalpur, thereby connecting Mumbai and Kolkata. The great famine of 1878 provided an opportunity for the construction of 150 km long meter gauge link called the Nagpur Chhattisgarh Railway in 1882 connecting Nagpur with [[Rajnandgaon]].<ref name=number1>{{cite web| url = http://railwaysofraj.blogspot.in/2011/08/number-1-down-mail.html |title = Number 1 Down Mail| publisher= Railways of the Raj| access-date = 2012-02-19 }}</ref>

The Bengal Nagpur Railway was formed in 1887 for the purpose of upgrading the Nagpur Chhattisgarh Line and then extending it via Bilaspur to Asansol, in order to develop a shorter Howrah-Mumbai route than the one via Allahabad.<ref name=number1/> The [[Nagpur Chhattisgarh Railway]] was owned by the provincial government.<ref name=ncr>{{cite web| url =http://wiki.fibis.org/index.php?title=Nagpur_Chhattisgarh_Railway |title = Nagpur Chhattisgarh Railway | publisher=fibis| access-date = 2012-02-19 }}</ref> Bengal Nagpur Railway was formed in 1887.<ref name=fibis>{{cite web| url = http://wiki.fibis.org/index.php?title=Bengal-Nagpur_Railway|title = Bengal-Nagpur Railway| publisher=fibis| access-date = 2012-02-19 }}</ref> The Nagpur Chhattisgarh Railway was purchased from Great Indian Peninsula Railway by Bengal Nagpur Railway in 1888, and was converted to broad gauge.<ref name=ncr/> The Bengal Nagpur Railway main line from Nagpur to Asansol was opened for goods traffic on 1 February 1891.<ref name=major>{{cite web|url=http://www.ser.indianrailways.gov.in/view_section.jsp?lang=0&id=0,1 |title=Major Events in the Formation of S.E. Railway |publisher=South Eastern Railway |access-date=2012-02-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130401151628/http://www.ser.indianrailways.gov.in/view_section.jsp?lang=0&id=0%2C1 |archive-date=2013-04-01 }}</ref> It was only after Kharagpur was linked from the west and the south that it was connected to Howrah in 1900.<ref name=timeline>{{cite web| url = http://irse.bravehost.com/IRHTML.htm| title = Indian Railway History timeline| last = R.P.Saxena| access-date = 2012-02-19| archive-url = https://archive.is/20120714085533/http://irse.bravehost.com/IRHTML.htm| archive-date = 14 July 2012| url-status = dead| df = dmy-all}}</ref>

Mr. Bhagabati Charan Ghosh was the first Indian to occupy the post of a Personal Assistant to the agent of B.N. Railway and he was the founder and first chairman for eleven and half years(1909-1920) of the B.N. Railway Employee's Urban Bank since its inception.<ref>Certificate of Farewell to Mr. Bhagabati Charan Ghosh from The Officers and Staff of the Agent's Office & of the Employee's Urban Bank at his farewell ceremony on 23rd December, 1920</ref> The name of this organisation is being changed time to time with the development of working zones of Indian Railway. Its present name is SE, SEC & E-CO RLY'S EMPLOYEES' CO-OPERATIVE CREDIT SOCIETY LTD. Registered Office is situated at 93,CIRCULAR GARDEN REACH ROAD, KOLKATA-700043, WEST BENGAL, INDIA. He was the father of world renowned great yogi [[Paramahansa Yogananda|SRI SRI PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA.]]<ref>{{Cite book|title=Autobiography of a Yogi, 1997 Anniversary Edition. Self-Realization Fellowship (Founded by Yogananda)|publisher=yogananda.org}}</ref>

Although Bengal Nagpur Railway was not a part of original design to connect major points in the subcontinent with a network of railways, it was instrumental in developing a shorter, and hence more popular, route from Howrah to Mumbai and the trunk route from Howrah to Chennai.<ref name=number1/><ref name=major/><ref name=timeline/>

The civil engineer Lt Col [[Arthur John Barry]] was the Executive Engineer in charge of the construction of the bridge over the [[Damodar River|Damuda River]] and the work of the Damuda district of the Bengal-Nagpur Railway, of which he was afterwards Superintending Engineer of the Bengal section.<ref>Frederick Arthur Crisp ''Visitation of England and Wales'', Volume 14, London (1906)</ref>

The management of the Bengal Nagpur Railway was taken over by the Government of India in 1944.<ref name=major/>[[Eastern Railway zone|Eastern Railway]] was formed on 14 April 1952 with the portion of [[East Indian Railway Company]] east of [[Mughalsarai]] and the Bengal Nagpur Railway.<ref name=zones>{{cite web| url = http://www.irfca.org/faq/faq-geog.html#newzone |title = Geography – Railway Zones| publisher= IRFCA| access-date = 2012-11-21 }}</ref> In 1955, [[South Eastern Railway zone|South Eastern Railway]] was carved out of Eastern Railway. It comprised lines mostly operated by BNR earlier.<ref name=zones/><ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.irfca.org/faq/faq-history4.html |title = IR History: Part - IV (1947 - 1970)| publisher= IRFCA| access-date = 2012-11-21 }}</ref> Amongst the new zones started in April 2003 were [[East Coast Railway Zone|East Coast Railway]] and [[South East Central Railway Zone|South East Central Railway]] and South Coast Railway was bifurcated between ECOR and SCR and a new Zone was formed in Visakahapatnam as Headquarters. Both these railways were carved out of South Eastern Railway.<ref name=zones/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{PM20|FID=co/049710|TEXT=Documents and clippings about|NAME=}}

{{Railway lines in Eastern India}}
{{Railways in Central India}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Metre gauge railways in India]]
[[Category:Defunct railway companies of India]]
[[Category:1887 establishments in India]]
[[Category:1952 disestablishments in India]]
[[Category:Railway companies established in 1887]]
[[Category:Railway companies disestablished in 1952]]
[[Category:Transport in Nagpur]]

Bengal Nagpur Railway - Revision history

2402:3A80:A6A:7258:0:4A:6A03:C101 at 20:33, 14 January 2022