Barasat Junction is a railway station located in Barasat, the headquarters of the North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is part of the Sealdah railway division of the Eastern Railway zone of Indian Railways and serves as an important suburban junction in the Kolkata Suburban Railway network.
| Station name | Barasat Junction |
|---|---|
| Station code | BT |
| Location | Barasat, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal |
| Owner | Indian Railways |
| Operator | Eastern Railway zone, Sealdah division |
| Line | Sealdah–Hasnabad–Bangaon–Ranaghat line |
| Electrified | Yes |
| Network | Kolkata Suburban Railway |
The station lies in the town of Barasat, situated to the north-east of Kolkata. As a junction, it serves as a node where suburban routes towards Bangaon, Hasnabad and Sealdah converge, making it a key transfer point for commuters in the northern fringe of the Kolkata metropolitan area. The town itself is connected by road to Kolkata via the Jessore Road (National Highway 12, formerly NH 35) and the Barasat–Barrackpore Road.
Barasat Junction is part of the suburban railway system radiating from Sealdah. From Barasat, lines branch towards:
The line passing through Barasat is electrified on the standard 25 kV AC overhead system used across Indian Railways suburban networks, and EMU services form the bulk of traffic at the station.
Railway connectivity in the Barasat region developed as part of the expansion of the Eastern Bengal Railway in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with later integration into Eastern Railway following the reorganisation of Indian Railways in 1952. The station's role as a junction has grown with the rapid suburbanisation of North 24 Parganas, and it handles substantial daily commuter traffic between the satellite town of Barasat and Kolkata.
Barasat Junction is also significant as a feeder point for travel to the Sundarbans region via the Hasnabad branch, and to the international border via the Bangaon branch.
Barasat is identified as the northern terminus of the Noapara–Barasat corridor (Line 4) of the Kolkata Metro, an under-construction extension intended to integrate the town more closely with the city's rapid transit network.