KALIGHAT FALTA RAILWAY (KFR)

KALIGHAT FALTA RAILWAY (KFR)

Other than the zonal Railways detailed in my earlier posts, there were also some Private Railways as distinct from the Private Railways run by the Princely States. McLeod & Company, a subsidiary of McLeod Russell & Co. Ltd, London built four such Private Railways in the early part of the 20th Century, to open up undeveloped parts of India. The running of the trains were managed by a company called the McLeod's Light Railways. These were

• Kalighat Falta Railway (KFR)

• Ahmedpur-Katwa Light Railway      

• Burdwan-Katwa Light Railway        

• Bankura Damodar Railway

KFR was 26.95 miles (43.37 km) long Narrow Gauge 2' 6" Track, opened on 28 May 1917 from Gholeshapur in Behala to Falta and was extended a further 0.92 miles (1.48 km) to Majherhat on 7 May 1920. Some Photographs of KFR are given below:

The Northern end of KFR was Kalighat ( as the name suggest) which is now known as Majerhat railway station,where coal required for the Steam Engine was transferred from BG Box cars to Narrow-gauge line cars for continued shipment, the Station Kalighat being on the BG Route of Sealdah – Budge Budge as may be seen from the Photograph below:

 

 

( Photo Source : The Hensley Collection, Life in Calcutta (Kolkata) – 1944,Old Indian Photos)

This line was closed in 1957, some years after the independence of India, when the British owners, McLeod, folded up their operations in India, and the new Indian and West Bengal government thought it best to close down this stretch of railway tracks. The reclaimed land, from where the tracks used to be, has been used to construct a road - the wide James Long Sarani in Behala.

 

I could get the names of the stations in this route as follows from Bradshaw of 1944 - I have kept the spellings exactly as stipulated in the ibid bradshaw:

Majherhat Jn – Gholeshapur – Sakherbazar – Thakurpukur – pailan – Bhasa – Halt No. 1 – Udayrampur – Amtala Hat – Halt No. 2 –  Halt No. 3 – Shirakole – Shivanipur – Dighirpar – Harindanga – Halt No. 4 – Sararhat – Falta.

It is to be noted that at the initiation of this railway, it was from Majherhat of tody, but the name of it was Kalighat at that time, hence the name "Kalighat - Falta Rly" (KFR). That is why the starting station has been shown as Majherhat Junction, since this line was meeting the Sealdah – Budge Budge line. Originally, Majherhat was the first station on the Sealdah –Budge Budge Line after bifurcation from Ballygunge Stn. The stretch being too long, an intermediate Stn with the name Kalighat was created subsequently, thereby renaming the-then Kalighat Stn. as Majherhat. During my childhood in the 50s, the Stns were Ballygunge - Kalighat - Majherhat - Brace Bridge ---- and so on. Much later, the Stn. Lake Gardens was introduced between Ballygunge and this Kalighat – the latter being renamed as New Alipore. There is thus no stn now as Kalighat in that Line.

 

(Data Source : Wikipedia plus Personal Knowledge)