Siliguri – Gateway to North East India

Charmingly ensconced in the foothills of Himalayas with beauty all around in the form of tea gardens and verdant forests to boast for, Siliguri was started known to the external world as a small railway junction for changeover to Darjeeling Toy Train by Darjeeling Himalayan Railway in 1880 but now it has one of the rare distinction from other hill stations in India.

Can you guess it?

It is the strategic geographic location of Siliguri

The Chicken’s Neck

Siliguri corridor is a 60 Km long and narrow strip of land (20 to 22 Km width at the narrowest section) popularly known as ‘The Chicken’s Neck’ connects the north eastern states of India with the rest of India. This was formed during the partition of Bengal and creation of East Pakistan during 1947 and from then onwards the importance of Siliguri as well as its growth aspects became exponential. Also all the national highway connecting the north eastern states with rest of India passes through Siliguri.

Gateway of North East India

After formation of this Chicken neck, in 1951 a rail link was built to connect Assam with Siliguri as an important railway junction. Within 10 years, all the north eastern railway stations were connected with a new railway station in Siliguri. Till 2011, Siliguri was the only railway station having narrow, meter and broad gauges. 

Siliguri location in the idyllic settings on the important transit route connecting the north eastern states (Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Sikkim) with India which signifies its importance as jugular vein for passenger movement, tourist flow, goods transportation and trade.

Siliguri corridor also has international borders with Bangladesh in the south, Bhutan in the North-East and Nepal in the west. Road network of Siliguri is being used by the government of Nepal and Bangladesh for transportation of essential commodities especially food grains as a gesture of friendship and international cooperation. The trade route from India to Tibet and Bhutan are via Siliguri only. Thus Siliguri is not only the Gate way to North East India alone but to the entire region especially to the land locked neighbouring countries which have greater dependency on Siliguri corridor as an inland transit for tourist and essential goods movement.

It is very close proximity to China border too and by advancing just 80 miles, there is a possibility for China to break the Chicken neck and isolate the north eastern states from rest of India. Due to this factor, there is a massive military concentration in this region and protected by military bases on all sides which includes the Asia’s 2^nd largest military Camp. In addition couple of air base stations of eastern command also available near Siliguri. This demonstrates the location importance of Siliguri to entire India.

Siliguri is a Gateway to South East Asia Too

Apart from connecting the India’s north eastern, the vitality of Siliguri is reckoned by the fact that it is the strategic route to enter Southeast Asian countries of Bhutan, Myanmar and China. On entering Myanmar, one can easily travel further overland to other countries like Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. With crucial connectivity for on road trade with many nations, Siliguri has enormous prominence as a transit hub. These countries are India’s major trading partners and movement of goods through the city accelerates the transportation of bulk goods in a shorter duration.

Growth of Siliguri

Siliguri once a ‘No Man Land’ drastically developed into the hub of tourism and economic activity in north east region of India. The population of Siliguri is growing exponentially due to the arrival of lot of migrants from various states to explore the business and job opportunities here. Hence there is an ever increasing demand for house / villa / apartment / land for sale in Siliguri. Admiring the natural beauty of Siliguri and its close proximity to major Himalayan hill stations like Darjeeling, many people who retired especially from the defence sector always look for a farm house / tea estate for sale in Siliguri to get settle there. It is evident from the increased search for property in Siliguri for sale / rent on the online property portals in the recent past.

Now it is the 3^rd largest city of West Bengal and soon or later it will become the 2^nd one. This is justified by the huge importance given by the Government of India to improve the infrastructure in this region not only considering the defence importance but the scope of economy through this corridor. The National Highway Authority of India has firmed up plans for the awarding of road building contracts to the tune of Rs.25,000 crores in the state of West Bengal. Out of the total amount, a plum portion to the tune of Rs.12,000 crores has been assigned for the Kharagpur – Burdwan – Morgram stretch considering the importance of Siliguri. The completion of this project will drastically bring down the time taken to travel from Kolkata to Siliguri which will lead to easy movement for defence, cargo and tourists. Speculating on the positive growth of Siliguri, the property price in Siliguri started escalation and many locals have shown keen interest to post property Ad to sell property online to liquidate their assets for a fortune value making use of this great opportunity.

The construction of the economic corridor also paves the way for vehicles passing from Kharagpur to Siliguri avoid entering into Kolkata. The big ticket infrastructure project is also expected to boost the economy of the hilly city. Shape of Siliguri infrastructure, economy is changing drastically and the real estate in Siliguri is already on upbeat but still cheaper than the real estate in Kolkata, Dispur / Guwahati  (Assam),  Itanagr (Arunachal Pradesh), Imphal (Manipur), Shillong (Meghalay), Kohima (Nagaland), Aizawl (Mizoram), Agartala (Tripura) and Gangtok (Sikkim). Hence people across the north eastern states flock for investment in Siliguri.