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 Shalimar | |||||||||||
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 Shalimar railway station, West Bengal | |||||||||||
| General information | |||||||||||
| Location | Shibpur,Howrah,West Bengal India | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 22°33′18″N88°18′55″E / 22.555109°N 88.315372°E /22.555109; 88.315372 | ||||||||||
| Elevation | 4.5 metres (15 ft) | ||||||||||
| System | Indian Railways andKolkata Suburban Railway station | ||||||||||
| Owned by | Indian Railways | ||||||||||
| Operated by | South Eastern Railway | ||||||||||
| Line | Shalimar-Santragachi line ofKolkata Suburban Railway | ||||||||||
| Platforms | 5 | ||||||||||
| Tracks | 18 | ||||||||||
| Connections |
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| Construction | |||||||||||
| Structure type | At grade | ||||||||||
| Parking | Available | ||||||||||
| Bicycle facilities | Available | ||||||||||
| Accessible | Yes | ||||||||||
| Other information | |||||||||||
| Status | Active | ||||||||||
| Station code | SHM | ||||||||||
| Zone(s) | South Eastern Railway | ||||||||||
| Division(s) | Kharagpur | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
| Opened | 1905; 120 years ago (1905) | ||||||||||
| Electrified | 2001; 24 years ago (2001) | ||||||||||
| Previous names | Shalimar rail yard | ||||||||||
| Services | |||||||||||
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Shalimar railway station (SHM) is aRailway Terminus located inShibpur,Howrah ofWest Bengal. It is one of five large intercity railway stations serving theKolkata metropolitan region, India. The other stations areSealdah,Howrah,Kolkata andSantragachi Junction. Shalimar station is situated on the western bank ofHooghly River.
The place where now the station is situated was formerly a very small rail station, and served by some diesel loco hauled trains. The present platforms were occupied by some goods lines. Those lines were a part of largeShalimar rail yard.
In 2000, the first plan was conceived to use this area as a bigger rail station. The rapidly growing long-distance passengers were gradually overcrowding the Howrah station. Due to the limitation of space, new platform construction is restricted at Howrah. Although 3 new platforms (17, 22 & 23) were constructed at Howrah during 2006 – 2008, those were not sufficient. Side by side, due to its almost central position in Howrah, Howrah station is too busy for both suburban and long-distance rail traffic. Unlike Sealdah station, Howrah station has fewer suburban trains than long-distance trains. Due to increasing of Eastern Railway trains, many platforms, which were previously built for South Eastern Railway trains, now often occupied by Eastern Railway trains. But many people of Howrah feel that it is much easy to catch a long-distance train from Howrah than Santragachi, particularly in early morning and late night. But due to platform limitation, increasing the number of long-distance trains was not possible from Howrah for South Eastern Railway.
To overcome this problem, South Eastern Railway suggested to Indian Railway officers to construct another bigger rail station at Howrah, mostly for long-distance trains. The many underused tracks of Shalimar yard was the first choice of the authority.
Construction started from 2000. The construction of platforms, station buildings, and car parking area were started. After the completion, other tracks were re-aligned. The tracks around platform were completely electrified for passenger coaches shunting. At first, only one express train started. This train stopped later and then other long-distance trains started. From this time, diesel loco-hauled trains were replaced by EMU trains, which started suburban services.
There is a taxi stand and a toto (e-rickshaw) stand outside the station. The nearest tram terminus was formerlyShibpur, but it was closed in 1971. There are small eateries serving snacks on the platform and eateries serving lunch outside the station.
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