Giridih railway station


Giridih railway station, station code GRD, is the main railway station serving the city of Giridih, the headquarters of Giridih district in the Indian state of Jharkhand. Giridih station also serves as a gateway for the jain pilgrims visiting Parasnath. Giridih is located at. It has an elevation of.
Giridih station is the terminal station located on the western end of Giridih–Madhupur line of the Asansol Railway division in the Eastern Railway Zone of Indian Railways. The Madhupur–Giridih route is a single line Broad Gauge between the two main railway stations Giridih and Madhupur Junction. The total length of the route is. It has a single platform and handles a total of 14 trains daily.

History

The Giridih Railway Station was built as a railway siding in 1871 by the British government in India mainly for transport of mineral reserve from the region. The contract for the railway siding was awarded in 1865 and the construction was completed in 1871. In 1901 the railway siding was converted into a railway station.
The siding is owned by Central Coalfields Limited

Further extension

A track from Koderma to Maheshmunda has been constructed. This extended the Madhupur-Giridih railway line to Koderma, effectively making it a Madhupur–Giridih–Koderma line. It is opened for traffic. A new station was built on Maheshmunda–Koderma section named as New Giridih Station which leaves out the already existing station Giridih on this route, also making Maheshmunda a junction station now. On 16 February 2019, Eastern Railway in its press-release announced a passenger train service w.e.f. 25 February 2019 from Koderma to Madhupur via New Giridih Station.
There are plans from the Railway ministry to connect New Giridih Station with Parasnath Station via Madhuban, for the convenience of the Jain pilgrims visiting Shikharji. The foundation for the construction of new Parasnath-New Giridih rail line was laid in 2019. The 47-km long railway line would incur a cost of Rs 972 crore on its construction and will have two crossing stations and a couple of halts. The cost of the project would be borne by the central and the state government in 50:50 ratio and a target has been set to complete the project by 2023.
There are other proposals as well to connect New Giridih Station with Dhanbad Junction via Tundi and Govindpur, and with Jhajha Station via Bengabad, Chakai and Sono. The first phase of the Jhajha–New Giridih rail line involves 20-km long Jhajha–Batia section, the foundation for which was laid in 2019 and which will be constructed at a cost of Rs 496 crore.

Platforms

Currently there is a single platform apart from the railway siding that was built earlier.

Station layout

Trains

Giridih terminal station handles trains five times daily except Thursdays and four times on Thursday.

Nearest airports

The nearest airports to Giridih Railway Station are:
  1. Birsa Munda Airport, Ranchi
  2. Gaya Airport
  3. Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Airport, Patna
  4. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata