Changrabandha railway station

Changrabandha is a land border crossing point and a defunct rail transit point on the Bangladesh-India border in Cooch Behar district in the Indian state of West Bengal. The corresponding point on the Bangladesh side is Burimari in Lalmonirhat District.The headquarters of Mekhliganj community development block is located at Changrabandha.HistoryThe Lalmonirhat-Malbazar metre gauge line was developed by the Bengal Dooars Railway in the closing years of the nineteenth century. With the partition of India in 1947, the Indian side of the line terminated at Changrabandha and the Pakistani side, later Bangladeshi side, at Burimari.Present statusThe line between New Mal Jn. and Changrabandha is now (2016) converted to Broad Gauge. The introduction of the train services were delayed as a result of delay in environmental clearance. However a pair of DMUs have been introduced on this route from Siliguri to Changrabandha via New Mal Jn from 20 January 2016.The Bangladeshi side of the line is still functional but the track is in bad shape with frequent derailments. There are two local trains in a day running at a limited speed of 8–14 km per hour (as against 45 km per hour in normal sections). Bangladesh Railway has planned for rehabilitation of the line.