Grand Chord- also known as The Life line of India is a section of the Indian Railways

Indian Railways

Indian Railways , abbreviated as IR , is a departmental undertaking of Government of India, which owns and operates most of India's rail transport. It is overseen by the Ministry of Railways of the Government of India....

 and is one of the two parts of the main Delhi

Delhi

Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

-Howrah route. It acts as a link between Sitarampur

Sitarampur

Sitarampur , a small township just off the Asansol-Dhanbad stretch of the Grand Trunk Road, was one of the early hubs of coal mining activity. Coal was found in abundance around Sitarampur in the early years of the 19th century and mining started at this place in a big way...

, (West Bengal

West Bengal

West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

) and Mughal Sarai, Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...

, and covers a stretch of 450 km. It is a fully electrified, triple line section from Mughalsarai to Dehri-on-sone and double line section from Dehri-on-sone to Asansol. The Grand chord section is the lifeline of the country on which Coal, Steel and other important goods are moved from Eastern section to Western and Northern sections of the country. In the down direction, the traffic consists of mostly food grains, fertilizers and empty wagons for coal loading in the Bihar and West Bengal coal fields. Mughalsarai is a transit division and the main objective is to maintain mobility of high density traffic. The present capacity of the Grand Chord is being optimally utilized. Traversing through Chhota Nagpur

Chota Nagpur Plateau

The Chota Nagpur Plateau is a plateau in eastern India, which covers much of Jharkhand state as well as adjacent parts of Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. The Indo-Gangetic plain lies to the north and east of the plateau, and the basin of the Mahanadi River lies to the south...

 plateau

Plateau

In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...

 of Jharkhand

Jharkhand

Jharkhand is a state in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar on 15 November 2000. Jharkhand shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the west, Orissa to the south, and West Bengal to the east...

 as well as parts of the fertile

Fertile

The term fertile describes a condition whereby organisms are able to produce physically healthy offspring.Fertile may also refer to:...

 Gangetic plains of Bihar

Bihar

Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....

, the Grand Chord covers a stretch of 450 km.

The railways first came to eastern India in 1854, and the Calcutta–Delhi

Delhi

Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

 railway link, with a distance of more than 1636 km, became operational by 1866. With the increase in traffic it became necessary to construct an alternative route.

With this in view, The Grand Chord section was planned. The Grand Chord section was opened in December, 1906 by Lord Minto, then Viceroy

Viceroy

A viceroy is a royal official who runs a country, colony, or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. A viceroy's province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty...

 and Governor General of India with a function at Gujahandi. With the opening of the Grand Chord route, the distance between Calcutta and Delhi was reduced by 80 km. The cost of construction was around Rs. 41,500,000.
The Grand Chord section is critically important even today, handling major passenger trains on the Howrah-Delhi route, particularly all the Rajdhani Expresses from Howrah, Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar is the capital of the Indian state of Orissa, officially Odisha. The city has a long history of over 2000 years starting with Chedi dynasty who had Sisupalgarh near present-day Bhubaneswar as their capital...

 and Ranchi

Ranchi

-Climate:Ranchi has a humid subtropical climate. However, due to its position and the forests around the city, it is known for its pleasant climate. Its climate is the primary reason why Ranchi was once the summer capital of the undivided State of Bihar...

and the entire freight traffic, particularly coal, handled by the Dhanbad division of East Central Railway.

Eastern Freight Corridor

The Eastern Corridor encompasses a double line electrified traction corridor from Haldia on the Eastern Railway to Khurja on the North Central Railway (1270 Km) Via Grand Chord, Khurja to Dadri on NCR Double Line electrified corridor (46 Km) and Single electrified line from Khurja to Ludhiana (412 Km) on Northern Railway. The total length works out to 1279 Km. So in the grand Chord section its total 4 parallel track will be run to ease traffic movement on this busy route.

The Eastern Corridor will traverse 6 states and is projected to cater to a number of traffic streams - coal for the power plants in the northern region of U.P., Delhi, Harayana, Punjab and parts of Rajasthan from the Eastern coal fields, finished steel, food grains, cement, fertilizers, lime stone from Rajasthan to steel plants in the east and general goods. The total traffic in UP direction is projected to go up from 38 million tonnes in 2005-06 to 116 million tonnes in 2021-22.

Trains on the route

At one time in the 70's it was said that a goods train passes by every 20 minutes on the Grand Chord line. Now it has been reduced to between 5 minutes making it one of the busiest routes in India.
More than 50 mail/express trains use this shorter route apart from 2 dozens of Passengers Trains.

Some Important Trains are-

• The Royal Maharaja Express (Most Luxurious train in India)
• New Delhi-Howrah Rajdhani express
• New Delhi-Sealdah Rajdhani express
• New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani express (Via. Bokaro)
• New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani express (Via. Adra)
• New Delhi-Ranchi Rajdhani express (Via. Bokaro)
• New Delhi-Ranchi Rajdhani express (Via. Daltongunj)
• Ranchi-Howrah Shatabdi Express (Via. Bokaro)
• New Delhi-Howrah Duranto express
• New Delhi-Bhubneswar Duranto express
• New Delhi-Ranchi Garib Rath
• New Delhi-Howrah Yuva Express
• West Bengal Sampark Kranti express
• Orissa Sampark Kranti express
• Jharkhand Sampark Kranti express
• Howrah-Jodhpur exp
• Ajmer-Sealdah Exp
• Howrah-Amritsar Exp
• Kalka Mail
• Poorva Exp
• Howrah-Gandhidham Exp
• Howrah-Bikaner Exp
• Purusottam Exp
• Parasnath Exp
• Chambal Exp
• New Delhi-Howrah Exp
• Shipra Exp
• Jharkhand Exp (Via. Bokaro)
• Mahabodhi Exp
• Gaya-Nagpur Dikshabhumi Exp
• Gaya-Chennai Exp
• Jammu tawi Exp
• Howrah-Bhopal Exp
• Dehradoon-Howrah Exp
• Neelanchal Exp (Via. Bokaro)
• Neelanchal Exp (Via. Adra)
• Patna-Hatia Exp
• Superfast Exp
• Sarnath Exp
• Shalimar-Gorakhpur Exp
• Garba Exp
• Pratap Exp
• Black Diamond Exp
• Coalfield Exp
• Patna-Ranchi Jansatabdi Exp
• Jaliawala Exp
• Mumbai Mail
• Lokmanya Tilak Exp
• Jaipur-Howrah Exp
• Ganga-Damodar Exp
• Ganga-Sutlej Exp
• Palamu Exp
• Garib Nawaj Exp
• Howrah-Ranchi Intercity Exp
• Patna-Dhanbad Intercity Exp
• Dhanbad-Gaya Intercity Exp
• Dehri-Patna Intercity Exp
• Ranchi-Howrah Exp (New)
• Ranchi-Varanasi Intercity Exp
• Ranchi-Alipurdar Exp
• Shaktipunj Exp
• Howrah-Jabalpur Exp
• Howrah - Amritsar Express