the bridge over Rupnarayan River was completed. Howrah – Amta light Railway (2 ft gauge - 610 mm) line was completed in 1898 and was operated by M/s Martin & Co. of Calcutta. This link remained operative till 1971. After closure of the light railways, the demand for a broad gauge line between Howrah and Amta gained momentum. The project was completed in four phases. In the first phase, the line between Santragachi and Domjur was completed in 1984. In the second phase it got extended up to Bargachia in 1985, and later up to Munsirhat. Mahendralal Nagar station was completed in 2000, and the final leg to Amta was completed in December 2004. Former captain of Indian Cricket team Mahendra Singh Dhoni also worked as a ticket collector at the Kharagpur Railway station from 2000 to 2003 before commencing his cricket career playing for India. The need for a rail link between Panskura and Tamluk was conceived at the beginning of the 20th century, almost at the same time the rail link between Howrah and Kharagpur was opened. The railway company received offers for construction from two Agencies, M/s Martin & Company and M/s Babu Nibaran Chandra Dutta, the former against a guaranteed return of 3.5% while the latter with none. Although the offer of the latter was lucrative, the dilemma of whether to offer the work of construction to a native or not forced the project to be abandoned. After Independence, the requirement of rail link connecting Panskura and Durgachak came up primarily for the purpose of constructing the Haldia Port. The rail link between Panskura – Durgachak via Tamluk completed in 1968, which was later extended to Haldia in 1975. Extension of the rail link to Digha from Tamluk was sanctioned in 1984; it took 20 years to complete, set in two phases. The first phase linked Tamluk and Contai in November 2003, and the tourist destination Digha was connected to Howrah in December 2004. Geographical location of Kharagpur and its rail links with the rest of the country favored the construction of a centralized workshop with facilities to carry out major repairs of all broad gauge stock. The work was sanctioned in 1900; construction of the workshop was completed in 1904. Kharagpur has Asia's largest railway Solid State Interlocking (SSI) system. The Railways also plan to have an East Coast Dedicated Freight Corridor stretching from Kharagpur