Dhanbad Junction railway station

The entire belt between Durgapur (158 km from Howrah), and all the way up to Dhanbad and beyond is industrialized. Apart from factories, there are many coalmines, some closed now, and some with fires burning deep in the mineshafts. The mining area extends for a large area, mostly to the south of the tracks. Quite a portion of the track passes through cuttings, where the surrounding area is higher than the track level, resulting in the profusion of characteristic small masonry bridges crossing the tracks." This description is from "Gomoh loco shed and CLW trip record" by Samit Roychoudhury.[4]

The East Indian Railway Company extended its lines to Katrasgarh via Dhanbad in 1894.[5]

In the Railways in Jharia Coalfield, amongst the major sections of EIR were the Dhanbad-Phularitand section (21.6 km) opened in 1894 to Katrasgarh and extended to Phularitand in 1924, and the Dhanbad-Pathardih section opened in 1903.[6]

New developments

In February 2012, The Indian Railways had planned to set up a Railway Station Development Corporation (RSDC) that will work on improving the major railway stations including Dhanbad Junction by building and developing Restaurants, shopping areas and food plaza for commercial business and improving passenger amenities[7]

The Kumardhubi–Dhanbad, Pradhankhanta–Pathardih and Dhanbad–Gomoh sectors were electrified in 1960–61.[8]

The station houses all the major facilities like waiting rooms, computerized reservation facility, dormitory, retiring rooms, cafeteria, bookshop, food plaza etc.[9] Existing facilities are being revamped for developing it as model station. The Railway station is a divisional headquarters of East Central Railway and houses a number of non-passenger related facilities like loco sheds, washing lines etc. in its premises. From 21 November 2016 free RailWire WiFi facility is also available. If You have to come on Manaitand and Joraphatak Area then come across the Platform No. 8, If You have to reach central area of Dhanbad then come across the Platform No. 1A main gate. You can also get various types of Magazines, NewsPapers, and more facilities on Platform No. 1,2 & 3.

Escalator has been installed in platform 2 and 3 at the station. This proves to be of high help to the senior citizens and the handicapped.

External video
Video of Rajdhani Express from Dhanbad Junctionretrieved 8.03.2012

Dhanbad station is very well connected by roadways. There is a bus stand just outside the railway station, where buses for nearby cities like Kolkata, Patna , Jamshedpur, Ranchi, Bokaro, Giridih, Asansol and Durgapur are easily available.

Outside the station, there is a taxi stand wherein a lot of taxis are always available.

Dhanbad along with Ranchi and Jamshedpur were provided with buses under JNNURM scheme, for city transportation. These buses can be used for local transportation.

Autos remain the mainstay of civilian transport in the city. These autos can be used to travel throughout the length of the city, using very nominal fares.

Some of the major trains through Dhanbad are :-

• Dhanbad–Alappuzha Express

• Dhanbad–Ferozpur Ganga Sutlej Express

• Dhanbad–Kolhapur Deekshabhoomi Express

• Sealdah–Bikaner Duronto Express

• Howrah–New Delhi Rajdhani Express

• Sealdah Rajdhani Express

• Shaktipunj Express

• Black Diamond Express

• Coalfield Express

• Howrah–Mumbai Mail

• Ganga Damodar Express

• Ahmedabad–Kolkata Express

• Sealdah–Jammu Tawi Humsafar Express

• Doon Express

• Netaji Express

Dhanbad Jn is a Category A1,[10] station as well as the divisional headquarters. It is the largest station in the adjoining area, and every train has a halt here. Lying centrally on the Grand Chord it is flanked by Gaya Junction on the Delhi side and Asansol railway station on the Howrah side. It is not uncommon to find long-distance trains getting their locomotives and rakes (occasionally) changed here. All the trains including Duronto Express passing through Dhanbad have a stoppage here. Due to shortage in spaces, Dhanbad does-not have any loco-shed at present. It used to have a steam loco shed earlier. It has a trip loco shed at its outer section, has its electric loco shed at Gomoh and its diesel loco shed at Patratu. Being the largest station in the area it finds a very heavy patronage and a huge number of passengers use this station every day. A lot of people from adjoining districts like Bokaro, Koderma, Giridih come to Dhanbad early morning to catch the 'morning trains' to various destinations like Kolkata, Durgapur, Jamshedpur, Ranchi, Patna, Burdwan and Gaya. Dhanbad also became the 1st station in the country to have an AC double-decker express running till Howrah Junction which is now discontinued.

Madhupur–Giridih–Koderma line
km to Asansol 138 Madhupur to Jasidih 132 Sugapahari 130 Sugapahari Halt 125 Jagadishpur 121 Krishna Ballabh Sahay Halt 111 0 Maheshmunda 11 Giridih 16 CPC Siding Giridih 104 0 New Giridih Dhanbad–New Giridih line (planned) Dhirabar River 12 Koimara Barakar River 25 Fatehpur 32 Tundi 45 Maharajganj Khudia River 59 Govindpur to Asansol 70 Pradhankhanta to Dhanbad Usri River 96 0 Salaia Parasnath–New Giridih line (planned) 7 Lakhiatanr 14 Kumhartola Barakar River 24 Madhuban 31 Chainpur Halt to Netaji SC Bose Gomoh 38 Parasnath to Koderma 93 Jitpur 86 Kawar 79 Jorasankh Halt 72 Jamua 62 Duriatanr Halt 55 Rema 49 Dhanwar 41 Rakesh Bagh Halt 33 Nawadih 28 Nawal Sahi Halt 20 Maheshpur Halt 10 Koderma Town to Tilaiya (under constr.) 0 Koderma Asansol–Gaya section Koderma–Hazaribagh– Barkakana–Ranchi line km

Railways is mulling to connect Dhanbad with New Giridih via Pradhankhunta, Govindpur and Tundi.[11]

• Dhanbad

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dhanbad Junction railway station.

Dhanbad travel guide from Wikivoyage

• "Coal town station first in state to score an A1". telegraphindia.com. Archived from the original on 28 November 2013. Retrieved 30 May 2014.