Grand Chord

Grand Chord is part of the Howrah–Gaya–Delhi line and Howrah–Prayagraj–Mumbai line. It acts as a link between Sitarampur, (Asansol), (West Bengal) and Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction, (Uttar Pradesh), previously known as Mughalsarai Junction, and covers a stretch of 450.7 km. The Coal India Corridor line that branches off from Dhanbad Junction and rejoins the Grand Chord at Son Nagar Junction is another major coal loading hub. It is a fully electrified, quadruple line section from Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay to Son Nagar and double line section from Son Nagar to Sitarampur. There are plans to triple the lines from Son Nagar to Dhanbad to accommodate the increasing traffic. . The entire line lies under the jurisdiction of three divisions, Mughalsarai railway division, Dhanbad railway division and Asansol railway division. The Grand chord section is the lifeline of the country, 2nd busiest railway section of India after Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh to Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction, Uttar Pradesh (previously known as Mughalsarai Junction) Main Line section, on which coal, steel and other important goods are moved from Eastern section to Western and Northern sections of the country. In the down direction, the traffic consists of mostly food grains, fertilizers and empty wagons for coal loading in the Jharkhand and West Bengal coal fields. Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction is a transit division and the main objective is to maintain mobility of high density traffic. The present capacity of the Grand Chord is being optimally utilized. Traversing through Chota Nagpur Plateau of Jharkhand as well as parts of the fertile Gangetic plains of Bihar, the Grand Chord covers a stretch of 450.7 km. The Grand Chord is renowned for its remarkable controlling of passenger traffic, despite being burdened with freight traffic.

The railways first came to eastern India in 1854, and the Calcutta–Delhi railway link, with a distance of more than 1642 km, became operational by 1866. With the increase in traffic it became necessary to construct an alternative route.

With this in view, the Grand Chord section was planned. The Grand Chord section was opened in December 1906 by Lord Minto, then Viceroy and Governor-General of India with a function at Gujahandi. With the opening of the Grand Chord route, the distance between Calcutta and Delhi was reduced by 192 km. The cost of construction was around inr 41500000.

The Grand Chord section is critically important even today, handling major passenger trains on the Howrah–Delhi route, particularly all the Rajdhani Expresses from Howrah, Bhubaneswar and Ranchi and the entire freight traffic, particularly coal, handled by the Dhanbad division of East Central Railway.

Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor
The Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) encompasses a double-line electrified traction corridor from Haldia on the Eastern Railway to Khurja on the North Central Railway (1270 km) via Grand Chord, Khurja to Dadri on NCR double-line electrified corridor (46 km) and Single electrified line from Khurja to Ludhiana (412 km) on Northern Railway. The total length works out to 1379 km. So in the Grand Chord section its total 4 parallel track will be run to ease traffic movement on this busy route.

The EDFC will traverse 6 states and is projected to cater to a number of traffic streams – coal for the power plants in the northern region of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and parts of Rajasthan from the Eastern coal fields, finished steel, food grains, cement, fertilizers, limestone from Rajasthan to steel plants in the east and general goods. The total traffic in UP direction is projected to go up from 38 million tonnes in FY2005-06 to 116 million tonnes in FY2021–22.

Trains on the route
In c. 1970, it was said that a goods train passes by every 20 minutes on the Grand Chord line. Now, the frequency has become around 5 minutes making it one of the busiest routes in India. More than 50 mail and express trains use this shorter route apart from 2 dozens of passenger trains.

Some important trains on the route

 * 1) Howrah Rajdhani Express (via Gaya)
 * 2) Sealdah Rajdhani Express
 * 3) Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express (via Bokaro, Tatanagar)
 * 4) Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express (via Adra)
 * 5) Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express (via Sambalpur)
 * 6) Ranchi Rajdhani Express (via Bokaro, Gaya)
 * 7) Ranchi Rajdhani Express (via Daltonganj)
 * 8) Howrah–Ranchi Shatabdi Express (via Bokaro, Dhanbad)
 * 9) Howrah–New Delhi Duronto Express
 * 10) Bhubaneswar–Duronto Express
 * 11) Sealdah–Bikaner Duronto Express
 * 12) Patna–Ranchi Vande Bharat Express
 * 13) Sealdah-Jammu Tawi Humsafar Express
 * 14) Godda-New Delhi Humsafar Express
 * 15) Ranchi–New Delhi Garib Rath Express
 * 16) Howrah–Anand Vihar Yuva Express
 * 17) West Bengal Sampark Kranti Express
 * 18) Odisha Sampark Kranti Express
 * 19) Jharkhand Sampark Kranti Express
 * 20) Gaya–Anand Vihar Garib Rath Express
 * 21) Howrah–Jodhpur Express
 * 22) Ajmer–Sealdah Express
 * 23) Kalka Mail – The oldest running passenger train of India
 * 24) Poorva Express (via Gaya)
 * 25) Garbha Express
 * 26) Howrah–Jaisalmer Superfast Express
 * 27) Purushottam Express
 * 28) Ara–Ranchi Express
 * 29) Parasnath Express
 * 30) Howrah–Gwalior Chambal Express
 * 31) Howrah–Agra Cantt/Mathura Chambal Express
 * 32) Howrah–Indore Junction Shipra Express
 * 33) Jharkhand Swarna Jayanti Express (via Bokaro)
 * 34) Mahabodhi Express
 * 35) Deekshabhoomi Express
 * 36) Gaya–Chennai Egmore Weekly Superfast Express
 * 37) Howrah–Bhopal Weekly Express
 * 38) Doon Express
 * 39) Neelachal Express (Via. Bokaro)
 * 40) Nandankanan Express (Via. Adra)
 * 41) Patna–Hatia Express
 * 42) Shalimar (Howrah) Express
 * 43) Pratap Express
 * 44) Black Diamond Express
 * 45) Coalfield Express
 * 46) Patna - Ranchi Janshatabdi Express
 * 47) Purnia Court - Hatia Kosi Express
 * 48) Sealdah–Amritsar Jallianwalla Bagh Express
 * 49) Tatanagar–Amritsar Jallianwalla Bagh Express
 * 50) Kolkata Mail via Allahabad
 * 51) Ganga Damodar Express
 * 52) Ganga Sutlej Express
 * 53) Garib Nawaz Express
 * 54) Howrah–Ranchi Intercity Express via Adra
 * 55) Dhanbad–Patna Intercity Express
 * 56) Dhanbad–Gaya Intercity Express
 * 57) Patna–Bhabua Road Intercity Express
 * 58) Howrah–Ranchi Intercity Express  via Tatanagar
 * 59) Ranchi–Varanasi Express
 * 60) Ranchi–Kamakhya Express
 * 61) Shaktipunj Express
 * 62) Haldia–Anand Vihar Terminal Superfast Express
 * 63) Bhubaneswar–Anand Vihar Weekly Superfast Express via Sambalpur, Rourkela, Bokaro
 * 64) Shabd Bhedi Superfast Express
 * 65) Howrah–Lalkuan Express
 * 66) Durgiana Express
 * 67) Kolkata–Agra Cantonment Express
 * 68) Kolkata–Agra Cantonment Superfast Express
 * 69) Santragachi–Anand Vihar Superfast Express
 * 70) Jasidih–Pune weekly Express
 * 71) Shalimar-Gorakhpur Weekly Express
 * 72) Gaya-Lucknow Ekatmata Express
 * 73) Jasidih–Vasco-Da-Gama weekly Express