This story is from July 12, 2004

Old-timers enthused by train revival

PATNA: Old-timers welcomed the revival of 142-year-old Patna-Digha train service on Sunday after a gap of 30 years. No passenger train had run on this track after 1974.
Old-timers enthused by train revival
PATNA: Old-timers welcomed the revival of 142-year-old Patna-Digha train service on Sunday after a gap of 30 years. No passenger train had run on this track after 1974.
Reminiscing the past, an old timer, V Basudev, said that the old Patna station is Patna Saheb now and the present Patna Junction was known as Bankipore particularly in the British parlance.
The only rail link from Howrah was up to Bankipore and there was no mainline link up to Mughalsarai. The Britishers had thus no direct link to go to Delhi in 1880s.
They had to go either via Asansol-Dhanbad-Gaya or by ship if they preferred the Ganga route.
According to him, George V had visited India sometime in 1905 and after him Lord Hardinge visited Bankipore. It was he who got the Patna-Gaya line constructed in the early 1900s and then it was directly linked to Delhi via Gaya and Mughalsarai, he recalled adding that the Hardinge Park was established for the evening stroll of Lord Hardinge.
He pointed out that Lord Hardinge had an opportunity to travel by a special train known as East India Railway (EIR) on the Patna-Digha line in the early 1900s. A special platform was created at the Hardinge railway yard to accommodate the plush saloon of Lord Hardinge, he said.
According to Basudev, the Patna-Digha line covered a total distance of 10 km from the Hardinge Park. The old Patna was linked to Malsalami in the late 1800s to carry goods there. A direct link was then established between Digha ghat and Patna ghat yielding revenue for the EIR. However, the mainline link from Bankipore to Mughalsarai was established way back in 1920-21, he added.
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