The wagons of the goods train were taken across the river Ganga by boat.
– Photo: Amar Ujala.
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On January 22, devotees from Gorakhpur will go to the Pran Pratistha ceremony at the Ram temple in Ayodhya by high speed trains like Vande Bharat, Amrit Bharat, but about a hundred years ago, it was not easy to go to Ayodhya from here. To reach Ayodhya, one had to cross the Saryu river by boat near Katra station. For this, a ferry boat was run by the Railways.
This interesting incident is mentioned in the book ‘A Journey of Transformation on Short Line’ published under the editorship of Pankaj Kumar Singh, Chief Public Relations Officer of North Eastern Railway. Pankaj Singh says, very interesting incidents have been mentioned in the railway records in this book, which also includes the old system of movement of trains on the Gorakhpur-Ayodhya railway line.
Katra, the neglected station of North Eastern Railway near Ayodhya, is now suddenly in the news. Katra station situated on the line from Mankapur to Ayodhya is quite old. About 127 years ago, trains of North Eastern Railway (Bengal and North Western) used to run on both banks of big rivers due to lack of bridges.
In between, boats were used to cross the river. Similarly, near Patna, a boat was used to run the river Ganga to transport the railway engine and bogie, which was named Bali. This boat was so big that apart from the engine, the wagon of a goods train was also loaded on it.