Shifting its lens towards crucial suburban stations in addition to the major ones in the city, the Sealdah division of the Eastern Railway is considering a major overhaul of Dum Dum station. The Sealdah division is exploring options of constructing a rail flyover near the Dum Dum station to ease out pressure and congestion of train movements in this stretch of divisional railway.
Dum Dum railway station in the northern fringes serves as a nerve centre to lakhs of suburban passengers entering from this part of the city towards the other corners of Kolkata. It plays a pivotal role as a junction station of the Kolkata Suburban Railway on the Sealdah-Ranaghat main line, connecting the Dum Dum Metro station to the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport. In the northern side, three lines emanate from Dum Dum – the Kolkata Eastern line to Gede, the Calcutta chord line to Dankuni and the Sealdah-Hasnabad-Bangaon-Ranaghat line to Bangaon and Hasnabad.
Towards the south, the three lines go towards Sealdah, while the Kolkata Circular Railway line arises from it towards Patipukur and also ends to it through Bidhannagar Road after encircling the city through various important stations like Kolkata railway station and Majerhat.
With such crucial lines, the station has become one of the busiest stations of Sealdah division in the fringes of the city. In the background of its importance, the station is being revamped under the Amrit Bharat Station scheme at a cost of Rs 7.98 crore. However, in addition to the improvements in façade, circulating area, waiting hall, toilets and so on, the divisional railway authorities are considering undertaking two crucial works to give the station a major overhaul. “Dum Dum is a major bottleneck for us. If a rail flyover is constructed, it will ease out many things. We have, therefore, engaged a consultancy for a flyover over Dum Dum,” informed a senior official.
The flyover, as elaborated by the official, was in the plans of the Railways earlier also but was shelved for a while. But with increasing congestion in this part, the authorities are giving the plan a rethought. However, the plan is informed to be at a nascent stage and a detailed project report is yet to be done.
The other crucial step that the Sealdah division is mulling is the redevelopment of the underpass near the station. The railway officials are said to have visited the underpass recently. “At Dum Dum, there is a problem of water accumulation and we are taking steps to solve it,” said the official. “There is technology in which high pressure grouting is done. This helps in preventing the water seepage. At Dum Dum, the technology would be utilized to address the problem of water accumulation,” added the official.