:- DHANBAD
RAILWAY DIVISION :- ADRA
ZONE :- SOUTH EASTERN RAILWAY.
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Sijua, a census town is Dhanbad district is a lucky place where three almost parallel running railway tracks are within 5kms of each other.
And as such this small industrial hamlet is lucky to have 3 railway stations.....
1. (TSAH)...the smallest station of the lot serves the Tata Sijua colliery and falls under SER's ADRA railway division!
2. (SJA)......this lies on the DHN-CRP section of the DHN-RNC & DHN-SGRL railway line and falls under ECR's Dhanbad Division
3. (TET)......The largest station of the lot, it serves Tetulmari and lies on the DHN-GMO section of the Grand Chord line and also falls under ECR's Dhanbad Railway Division.....
TSAH falls in the BJE-VAA-MHQ-GMO section of the ADRA-GMO line and has no direct railway links to DHN...actually this route is kinda a Dhanbad bypass.....and as such the railway line has the number of trains running on the tracks well in single digits......
I had met Ex-IRI member Suriender Singh at SJA station. I had arrived at SJA at 12:00 PM using the DHN-CRP passenger. We stayed from 2-2.5 hrs and had a lively discussion about ourselves, SJA, the future of the DHN-CRP line etc.....
In the meantime I also took a few snaps which I would be sharing in an another blog......
About Singh : He seemed to be a very amicable fellow and his Hindi speaking skills were superb.....'Woh jisse kehte hai na "Sudh Hindi"'!!!
A guy with a terrific sense of humour , it doesn't strike you when you engage in a conversation that you are talking to Psychology student...
Guess psychology students have that ability to make you feel at home!!!
At around 4 PM we started on his bike, him driving and me riding pillion....It took a mere 15-20 minutes and we were on the road. TSAH is a tiny halt station located a few metres away
We parked our bikes and trudged towards the station...On our away we found a few girls giggling at us uncontrollably!
Unable to fanthom the reason behind their continous laughter, I stopped to have a look! Singh who in the meantime had surged ahead, quickly hustled me towards the station platform......Whereby on enquiry I came to know that those girls had mostly likely come there to relive themselves and where they had to endure our unwanted intrusion! Open Defecation is a serious problem here and inspite of the many steps that the authorities have tried to curtail it, it doesn't seem to interest the common folks! There are some people who never learn!!!
Hmmm....now the entire BJE-VAA-MHQ section is a single electrified broad guage. There are actually two lines separating at Bowrah Jn probably......
The Bhojudih-Bhaga-Mahuda is the longer line and this station falls on this route....It mainly serves the collieries of Jamadoba, Bhaga, Karkend, Loyabad, Bhelatand etc.... Previously this line was connected with Dhanbad via Jharia, Patherdih directly.....Courtesy of underground fire that line is already in the pages of history!!! This line bypasses Dhanbad and there is an amazing scarcity of trains on this line.....
In the 30 odd minutes we spent there, there wasn't a sign of life on the station....had it been not for the signal posts I would have surely believed the station to be abandoned. The station premises were locked and the ASM had probably gone to have a chat with the cabin man in the nearby Tisco Bhelatand Siding Cabin situated nearby!
A station master abandoning his station to have a chat with the cabinman, I think it gives a rather fair idea about how train 'scarce' this area is........
There are only three trains plying daily:-
1. The GMO-KGP passenger
2. The ADRA-KNF passenger
3. The GMO-CKP passenger
and finally a tetra-weekly SF 'Nandan Kanan Express' which doesn't have a halt here.....
The adjoining Bhojudih-Talgoria-Mahuda line is luckier as more number of trains traverse there....
Even the tri-weekly BBS Rajdhani gives it's blessing there.....
For more details about the technical aspect of the line, and to know more of it's history please refer the wikipedia link here:-
click hereWe spent around 15-20 minutes strolling on the platform there.....I taking some snaps along the way while 'Singh' was lecturing about the station.....
The only sign of life excepting the two of us.....were a few cows busy munching on the not so 'lush green' grasses.....It is best explained by photograph 10, where a cow calf is curiously staring at the 'flash' of the camera of my cellphone.....
There was an ox too who wasn't probably too happy to see us there.....:D
After spending about 10 more minutes we went back to roadside.....where we encountered those girls again......they started laughing again....we flashed a 'not so innocent smile'....started our bike...and bid them adieu!
Singh dropped me at SJA again where I took the HTE-DHN passenger home.....pictures and the incidents at SJA would be covered up in another post....
Presenting some of the pictures that I managed that day.....
1. PHOTO 1 :- STATION BOARD
#admin can update it if they find it suitable.
2. PHOTO 2 :- MAIN STATION BUILDING-CUM-TICKET HALL-CUM WAITING ROOM
3. PHOTO 3 :- A GLimpse towards the roadside
4. PHOTO 4 :- ANOTHER STATION SHOT
5. PHOTO 5 :- DRINKING WATER TANK in the station premises
6. PHOTO 6 :- A NEARBY TEMPLE DEDICATED TO LORD SHIVA
7. PHOTO 7 :- ZOOM IN OF THE TEMPLE
8. PHOTO 8 :- A SHOT ATOP THE MAIN BUILDING
9. PHOTO 9 :- BENCHES AND SEATING ARRANGEMENTS'
10. PHOTO 10 :- THE COW CALF GAZING CURIOUSLY AT THE FLASH. ( Please zoom in, you can see the flash-light in her eyes)
11. PHOTO 11 :- ANOTHER SHOT OF THE HERD OF COWS.
12. PHOTO 12 :- THE SOLE BENCH WHICH WAS SHEDED
13. PHOTO 13 :- A SHOT OF THE OX (As it can be seen I was quite concerned about my safety here and as such took this one from behind the railings :P
14. PHOTO 14 :- A SIGN BOARD AT THE STATION FRONTIER
15. PHOTO 15 :- THE 'W/L' or 'SI/FA' BOARD
16. PHOTO 16 :- ANOTHER SHOT OF THE COWS (They lost interest by now, as you can see here :P)
17. PHOTO 17/18 :- SHOWS THE INSIDE STATION PREMISES (Zoom in on the train timtable , the 3 trains that halt here can be seen.)
18. PHOTO 19 :- THE WARNING BOARD AT THE RAILWAY CROSSING...
P.S :- COMING SOON.....the SJA trip report and a visit to MHQ (Mahuda junction)!!!
Arnab
