ASANSOL

     
 

 

HISTORY

This division formed in 1925 has been historically connected with the railway revolution in India. EIR Company was established in February,1847. The line from Howrah to Pandooah (61 Km.) was ready in 1853. Finally on 1st. February 1855 A train was run from Howrah to Raniganj (194 Km). This accelerated development of trade and commerce in eastern region and was extended towards Delhi. There was enormous increase of traffic and it was then felt necessary to create Asansol division in 1925, one of the oldest division in IR.
 

During the middle of nineteenth century the coal was being transported by boat from Narayan kuri Ghat of Damodar river, Searsole (Now Raniganj) to Calcutta by M/S Carr Tagore & Company, owned by  Dwarakanath Tagore. However, this supply was not uniform and enough because the level of water varied in the river Damodar with the varying seasons. So as to capture this lucrative business of coal transportation that East Indian Railway laid the lines up to Raniganj in 1855. It succeeded in its motive and captured the entire coal transportation business. This line was extended up to Asansol in July 1863 via Searsole (now Raniganj) and Kalipahari.

     The coal business started to flourish and consequently the train movements increased. The East Indian Railway (E.I.R.) needed large and expansive land area to build an infrastructure to run the Railways smoothly. Obviously, Raniganj was their choice for it was a much more developed business hub in those days because of the coal mines . They requested the Malias, the Raj family of Searsole (Raniganj) to provide them with sufficient land. But the Raj family did not accept the proposal since it was apprehended that  black smoke and coal dust from steam locomotives would cause a pollution leading to health hazards.
 

ASANSOL & THE RAJA OF PANCHKUT

          However, in 1863-64, this was seen as an opportunity by the Raj family of Panchakut (Cossipore, Adra) who sold a vast area of jungle land then known as "Shergarh" to the EIR. Asansol was a part of Shergarh. This happened in 1863-64, ushering the foundation of  Asansol's march towards a modem industrial township.

         In early days only two officers DVS i.e. Divisional Vehicular Supdt. (later DS and now DRM) and Sr. Supdt. of Works [later DEN and now Sr. DEN lived in bungalows situated on the road leading from the present station to the G.T. Road near the Nazrul Sarani. They used to run their offices from their bungalows.

A full fledged DVS(DRM) Office was set up in a two storied  building in 1880 on the west side of the present station road. The building at present serves the purpose of staff quarters. The Division got its new Divisional building in the year 1928 ( Picture above) to which an annexes was added in 1958. The Divl. Vehicular Supdt. was upgraded to Divisional Supdt. in 1950s and a separate DVS office was created under Asansol Division in Dhanbad in 1959. Soon this was upgraded to Divisional Supdt. thus creating Dhanbad Division after carving out a sizeable portion  from Asansol division.


SCHOOLS & CLUBS

In 1877 some started the St. Vincent Technical School. The land was purchased from Railways at a very nominal cost. This school aimed to produce trained Mechanical and Electrical artisan staff.
In the same year a Bengali medium school was started which has now grown into the prestigious "East Indian Railway Boys' High School". This was later renamed as "Eastern Railway Boys' High School"

Two magnificent buildings were setup in the heart of the town to provide recreation to the Railway staff.

THE DURAND INSTITUTE

Set up in 1878 , It got the name of 'European Institute' in 1915. In 1925 it was renamed as 'Durand Institute' after Sir Mortimer Durand, the architect of the famous Durand line between Afghanistan, Tibet and India. Now we call it 'Vivekananda Institute' from 1987. This Institute has the distinction of being the first recreational institute on the entire Indian Railways. It was set up primarily to serve the recreational needs of the mechanical engineers of East Indian Railway. This institute was very popular among the high officials of E.I.R., right from Calcutta to Saharanpur, and they craved to dance in the sophisticated dance hall during the Christmas festival. The entire floor was made of Burma Teak! However, entry to this institute was restricted only to the Europeans. Indians found entry only after Independence.
THE INDIAN INSTITUTE

The second one was setup in the year 1915 to meet the recreational demands of the Indian. The Institute became functional in the year 1917.Later on the eve of independence the Institute came to be known as 'Subhash Institute' after the name of great freedom fighter of India, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. The Institute promoted cultural sports activities among Railway Employees. This institute started cinema shows in 1925 with the help of Arora Studio. Later with the Independence movement catching up the institute became a centre of patriotic activities..

The division has got the largest goods yard at Andal, apart from Sitarampur and Barakar. The marshalling of wagons at Andal is done by a hump yard fitted with mechanical retarders. It has large number of collieries to serve and loads an average of 1300 wagons daily. Apart from this it handles about 4400 wagon FW units daily. The main commodities dealt are coal from Raniganj, Mugma, Jamtara and Giridih,  steel products from Durgapur and IISCO at Burnpur, petroleum product from Rajbandh and huge parcel traffic from Asansol and Jasidih.

SHEDS

This has     A Diesel Loco Shed at Andal .
                 Electric Loco Shed at Asansol
                 One MEMU shed  at Asansol.  

PLACES TO VISIT

Mython Dam : Famous for sight seeing and Health resort. Can be approached from Barakar by
                           road.

Panchet Dam : Famous for sight seeing. By road from Kumardhubi.

Baidyanthdham : Deoghar, the house of God,  as it more commonly known is on a branch line from Jasidih at a distance of 8 Km. This is one of the most ancient Hindu pilgrimage of the country. Famous for temple of Lord Shiva. It is believed that Ravana the king of Lanka brought the "Jyotirlinga" from Kailash and got it consecrated here. Later this became to be known as Baidyanath Shiva Linga.

Simultala : Famous for health resort and flower nursery.

 

 


Tilottama the heritage loco plinthed in front of DRM building

See the photographs of Black beauty contestants at Asansol in December 1991

 

Divisions : Sealdah  Howrah  Asansol  Maldah

Workshops  :  Jamalpur  Liluah  Kanchrapara

                        

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