EASTERN RAILWAY – A BRIEF PROFILEGenesisOn 15th August 1854, East Indian Railway (EIR)'s first train ran from Howrah to Hooghly, a distance of 24 miles. Regular services were introduced from that day, with stops at Bally, Serampore and Chandannagore.In 1862, EIR extended upto the west bank of Yamuna on its way to Delhi. In 1864, in a bid to connect Calcutta and Delhi, trains started running between the two cities without any bridge on Yamuna by ferrying the coaches on boats across the river at Allahabad. In 1865 the Yamuna Bridge at Allahabad opened. In 1867 EIR branch line extended from Allahabad to Jubbalpore.After the Government of India took over the management of EIR in 1925, it was splitted into six divisions — Howrah, Asansol and Dinapore known as the lower divisions and Allahabad, Lucknow and Moradabad known as the upper divisions.Eastern Railway (ER) was formed on 14th April, 1952 by integration of the East Indian Railway (EIR) consisting of Sealdah, Howrah, Asansol and Danapur Divisions and the entire Bengal – Nagpur Railway (BNR).The jurisdiction of ER extended from Howrah to Mughalsarai in the North, upto Visakhapatnam in the South and upto Nagpur in the Central area. The three Upper divisions of E.I.R. were added to Northern Railway.Asansol Division was formed in 1925, Dhanbad Division in 1964, Mughulsarai Division in 1975 and Malda Division in 1984 as part of ER.After redistribution and construction of new lines over a period of time, Eastern Railway as on 30th September 2002, stretched over 4245.61 kilometres.On 01-10-2002, three divisions viz. Dhanbad, Mughalsarai and Danapur were separated from Eastern Railway to create new East Central Railway zone with headquarters at Hajipur. Eastern Railway now consists of 2500 Route Kilometres spread over four divisions viz. Sealdah, Howrah, Asansoland Malda out of which 1424 route kilometres are electrified on 25 KV AC traction.