The South Eastern Railway had its beginning 100 years ago when its prdecessor, the Bengal-Railway Co., a company formed in London, signed a contract with the Secretary of State in Council in India to take over the meterguage Nandgaon Nagpur line on 9th March, 1887. Subsequently, the Kanti-Umaria line, now in the then Central Province, was taken over by this Railway and the Nagpur-Chattisgarh Railway converted to broadguage. In the next ten years, this railway came upto Calcutta which was then declared as its headquarters and also upto the coalfields of Bengal -Bihar with a line connecting Asansol in the then East India Railway. In the next ten years, the east coast section to Madras was linked alongwith a connection to Puri, a most popular sea rsort for the people of the eastern sctor. The Bengal-Nagpur Railway was brought under dirct State management on October 1, 1944 on the expiry of all contracts between the companises and the Government.

After Independence, the Bengal-Nagpur Railway was merged with the then East Indian Railway and one zonal railway unit was founded with headquarters at Calcutta. This was found to be unwieldy and on 17th June, 1955, the then Railway Minister, Sri Lal Bahdur Shastri announced the separation of old East Indian Railway and Bengal-Nagpur Railway as two seperate zones with headquarters of both in Calcutta. The old Bengal-Nagpur Railway sections constituted the South Eastern Railway. SER connects Calcutta with Bombay and Madras. This Railway extends upto Nagpur on the Bombay route, a distance of 1132 kms, and Waltair on the east section to Madras, a distance of 879 kms.

This Railway traverses six States, viz., West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, which are rich in natural resources, cultural heritage and folklore. During the last two decades, this Railwayhas grown into a gigantic railway system and is referred to from time to time as 'blue chip of Indian Railways', 'Core railway for core sector', 'Bread winner of Indian Railways', etc. It is significant that this Railway, with only 10% of the total freight loaded on the Indian Railways. Last year, out of 267 million tonnes loaded and moved on the Indian Railways, South Eastern Railway's share was 89 million tonnes.

Thus a high volume of traffic is generated from the stel plants located on this railway, viz., Tatanagar, Rourkela, Bhilai, Bokaro and Burnpur. Even for Durgapur, the raw materials like Limestone are loaded and moved on this Railways. The Coalfields in West Bengal, Bihar, Talcher, Id Valley, Central India, Pench VAley, the ports of HAldie, Vizag, Paradip, thermal power stations, cement factories, Paper Mills etc. are all ocated on this Railway route.

The last 31 years have been momentous years for this Railway. Starting from a modest beginning in 1955 with an originating revenue earning freight traffic of 19.5 million tonnes, this Railway has loaded 85 million tonnes in 1984-85. The S.E. Railway excepts a spurt infreight loading during the Seventh Paln. The S.E. Railwaymen have distinguished themselves in sports for the last many years and the BNR Club today is well known in sports circles.

The Department of Posts is happy to issue a set of 4 stamps on the centenary of the South Eastern Railway.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India