People have heard about ‘haunted’ houses and even ‘haunted cities’, but then a haunted railway station! Well it seems there is one – the Begunkodor railway station in Purulia district of West Bengal, 260kms from Kolkata.
Usually a station’s claim to fame is through the number of passengers it attracts. However, Begunkodor has earned its notoriety because trains have not been stopping here, not for one or two years, but for 51 years. Adding to the mystique is the story of a woman draped in a white saree, frequently seen by locals.
The story goes that the woman committed suicide by jumping in front of a train more than five decades back. And since then, the station has got the tag of a ‘haunted’ one.
The station was built in 1962 and the tragedy took place in 1967. The same year, the station master died under mysterious circumstances and since then no one wanted to be posted at the station. With no other option in sight, the Railways declared the station an abandoned one. And as days, months and years rolled by, the station became a dilapidated, deserted place.
Local people are also afraid to set foot in the because of the tales of the ‘white saree draped lady’ which has been passed on from one generation to the next. Even now, some locals say that they have seen her ghost. Hence, they frequent the station at Jhalda, which is eight kilometers away.
There was an effort made to reopen the station in 2009 when Mamata Banerjee was the Railway Minister. However, with passengers avoiding the station, the Railways had no option but to close it down.
Agencies