Barwadih Junction railway station

Barwadih Junction, station code BRWD, is the railway station serving the city of Barwadih which is the connecting point of Latehar and Palamu districts. Barwadih Junction belongs to the East Central Railway zone of the Indian Railways. Barwadih is surrounded by hills.

History
This is one of the junctions connecting Latehar and Palamu districts of Jharkhand. The Railway Ministry plans to build a new 178 km km line between Ambikapur (Chhattisgarh) and Barwadih (Jharkhand). The proposed line will reduce the distance between Mumbai and Howrah via Jabalpur by about 420.25 km.

Britishers were the first to moot the proposal way back in 1925 to connect Ambikapur and Barwadih, both coal-rich areas, by rail. The plan was aimed to facilitate the transportation of minerals.

The Britishers knew the importance of the rail line and the work on the project was started in the early 1930s after conducting the survey, sources added. The required land for the project was also acquired. But the work was stopped during World War II and the project had been pending since then, sources said.

The new rail line will give connectivity from Howrah, Dhanbad & Ranchi to Mumbai via Lohardaga, Barkakana, Latehar, Barwadih, Ambikapur, Katni, Jabalpur & Itarsi. It would help reducing the rail distance between the two Metros. At present, both the Metros are connected by two different rail routes one via Nagpur & Bilaspur and another via Itarsi & Jabalpur.

The distance between Howrah and Mumbai via Jabalpur is 2162.5 km km while the same via Nagpur comes to be around 1970.5 km. The railway runs maximum trains between both the Metros via Nagpur–Bilaspur section. Besides a daily Kolkata mail, a couple of weekly trains chug on Jabalpur–Itarsi section.

Sources said that the new 178 km Barwadih–Ambikapur line would change the rail map route between Howrah and Mumbai. If the new line starts, it will reduce the distance between both the Metros by more than 420.25 km, thus making it shortest route between Mumbai and Howrah by curtailing travel time by at least hours.

Facilities
The major facilities available are waiting rooms, retiring room, computerized reservation facility, reservation counter, vehicle parking, etc.

Platforms
The platforms are interconnected with foot overbridge (FOB).

Trains
Several electrified local passenger trains also run from Barwadih to neighbouring destinations on frequent intervals.

Nearest airports
The nearest airports to Barwadih Station are:
 * Birsa Munda Airport, Ranchi 180 km
 * Gaya Airport, Gaya 163 km
 * Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Airport, Patna 276 km
 * Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata