Dum Dum Junction railway station

Dum Dum Junction is a very important and busy junction station of the Kolkata Suburban Railway on the Sealdah–Ranaghat line. Three lines branch out from Dum Dum in the north direction–the Kolkata Eastern line to Gede, the Calcutta chord line to Dankuni and the Sealdah–Hasnabad–Bangaon–Ranaghat line to Bangaon and Hasnabad. On the other hand in the south direction, those three lines go to the Sealdah, while the Kolkata Circular Railway line arises from it towards Patipukur, and also ends to it through Bidhannagar Road after encircling the city of Kolkata through various important stations like Kolkata railway station and Majerhat.

The Dum Dum metro station of the Blue line is adjacent to Dum Dum railway station, making more connectivity to the city. It serves Dum Dum and the surrounding areas.

History
The Calcutta Sealdah–Kusthia line of Eastern Bengal Railway was opened to traffic in 1862. Eastern Bengal Railway worked on the eastern side of the Hooghly River, which in those days there was no bridge.

In 1882–84 the Bengal Central Railway Company constructed two lines: one from Dum Dum to Khulna present day which is in Bangladesh, via Bangaon and the other linking Ranaghat and Bangaon. The Bengal Central Railway was formed in 1881 to construct and operate a line to Khulna. Later, it was merged with Eastern Bengal Railway in 1903.

The 33.06 km long broad gauge line from Barasat to Hasnabad was constructed between 1957 and 1962. In 1932, the Calcutta Chord line was built over the Willingdon Bridge joining Dum Dum and Dankuni.

Electrification
The Sealdah–Ranaghat line and the Dum Dum–Barasat–Ashok Nagar–Bangaon line were electrified in 1963–64. Further, the Dum Dum–Dankuni sector was electrified in 1964–65.

Platform 1
Platform 1 mostly handles trains in the Up Sealdah Main Line sections. It also handles a few trains in the Up Sealdah-Dankuni chord line, Sealdah-Baruipara local, Sealdah-Bangaon section.

Platform 2
Platform 2 only handles Down Sealdah bound trains in the Sealdah-Main Line section and almost all trains from Dankuni and Baruipara and a few from the Bangaon-Sealdah section.

Platform 3
Platform 3 mostly handles Up train in the Sealdah-Dankuni chord line section, Sealdah-Baruipara local, the Sealdah-Bangaon section, Kolkata-Lalgola MEMU and Sealdah-Lalgola Passenger and MEMU trains. It also handles a few trains in the Up Sealdah-Main Line section and trains coming from Budge Budge, Majerhat through Ballygunge Junction.

Platform 4
Platform 4 mostly handles trains in the Sealdah bound trains in the Bangaon-Sealdah section. It also handles a few Dankuni-Sealdah trains and also handles trains from Majerhat and Ballygunge through Princep Ghat joining the Sealdah-Main Line section(and sometimes the reverse route too) and down passengers trains coming from Lalgola.

Platform 5
It mostly handles trains coming from or going to Princep Ghat, although Princep Ghat is not the terminus for trains passing through this platform. The Bangaon-Canning local also stops by this platform.

Passengers
Dum Dum railway station handles 576,000 passengers daily.

Train
Being an important railway junction station in the Sealdah Division of the Eastern Railways, Dum Dum Junction serves as an important halt to many long-distance trains like-


 * Sealdah–Muzaffarpur Fast Passenger (Up 53131 / Dn 53132)
 * Sealdah–Lalgola Passenger (Up 53171,  53175, 53179,53181, 63105 / Dn 53172, 53176, 53180, 53182, 53186, 63106)
 * Sealdah–Jangipur DEMU (Up 73151/ Dn 73152)
 * Sealdah–Rampurhat MEMU (Up 63141 / Dn 63142) etc.

Metro
It is connected with Dum Dum metro station of Kolkata Metro Line 1 via subways.

Auto
Autorickshaw services to Nagerbazar, Chiriamore, RG Kar Hospital, 30A bus-stand and Sinthee More are abundant.

Buses
Bus routes like 30B, 30B/1, 202, 219/1, DN9/1, S168 (Mini), E19D, S10, 11A, AC38 serve the station via Dum Dum Road.

Air
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport is connected via Dum Dum Rd and Jessore Rd; distance between Dumdum junction and the airport is 5.6 km.