The 'South Eastern Railway' is one of the sixteen
railway zones in
India. It is headquartered at Garden Reach,
Kolkata and comprises
Kharagpur division. It reorganized
Adra and
Chakradharpur divisions and the new
Ranchi division.
History
The Bengal Nagpur Railway (BNR) Company was incorporated in
1887 to take over from the
Nagpur Chattisgarh Railway and to convert the line to Broad Gauze. The work was completed in
1888. The extension of the main line from
Nagpur to
Asansol was completed by
1891. A 161 mile long branch line (258 km) which connected
Bilaspur to
Umaria coal mine was built and linked to the existing line from Umaria to
Katni. By the turn of the twentieth century work on the Calcutta-Bombay and Calcutta-Madras lines were completed. Through the first half of the twentieth century work on the BNR lines progressed steadily. In
1921 the
Talcher coalfields were connected by a railway line starting from
Nergundi. In 1931, the
Raipur-Vizianagram line was set up, which connected the East Coast with the
Central Province. By the end of the
1930s the BNR owned the largest narrow gauge network in the country. The BNR was nationalised in January
1943, and continued to be called by that name until 1952, when it joined the
Eastern Railways. In
1955, the initial merger dissolved and '
South Eastern Railway' came into existence.