Garhara (station code GHX) was a major trans-shipment yard situated after crossing the river Ganga at Mokama Opned on April 26,1959 just South of Barauni, it was the intersection between Broad Gauge lines of the then Eastern Railway Danapur and the then North Esastern railway Sonepur Division.
The first Broad Gauge train arrived here from Mokama side on May 8, 1959, a week after the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated the single line Rajendra Pul over the Ganga on May 1, 1959.
However the 8.8 –mile metre gauge line -Semaria Ghat extension alignment of Tirhoot Railway Company-from Barauni to Semaria Ghat via Garhara was opened along with the 10.05-mile Bachwara –Barauni and the 6.1 mile Bachwara-Dalsinghsarai sections on May 1, 1883.
Spread across approximately nine square km in area (over 2200 acres), the Garhara yard was manned bnt about 8000 railway men. The yard had 34 goods sheds and steam loco and later diesel loco shed facilities.It was a vital link for conveying goods and passengers from South Bihar to North Bihar, Northeast and Nepal.
Partha Mukhopadhyay who served as a Permanent Way Inspector (Grade –III) in the 1980s fondly recalls his stint at Garhara.
“The biggest beneficiary of the Rajendra Pul was the thermal power plant near Simaria” he says. “Being the largest trans-shipment yard, Garhara used to convey foodgrains, textiles and precious metals among others to North Bihar, Northeastern states and Nepal,” he observed, adding that railway men used to work both in open line and construction seamlessly.”
After his transfer from Garhara, Mukhopadhyay served in various capacities in Danapur and Mughalsarai (now Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Division) and retired in November 2015 as Deputy Chief Engineer at Eastern Railways’ Headquarters at Fairlie Place Kolkata.
Garhara’s decline
Indian Railways’ policy of Project Unigauge of 1991 entailed gauge conversion of metre gauge and narrow gauge sections across India to enable seamless transportation of people and goods while simulateously eliminating the need for trans-shipment.
With this, Garhara lost its sheen by the 1990s and come 2005-06, it was all over.
Cut to 2020. A new electric loco shed at Barauni situated on the vacant railway land at Garhara with a capacity of homing 250 WAG-9 type electric locos was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 18,2020 via video conferencing.
Earlier, Garhara was situated on a single un-electrified railway line between Mokama and Barauni. Today, the section is a fully electrified double line with the Commissioner of Railway Safety clearing the double line over the Ganga river at Hathidah on October 5, 2026.
