Henarathgoda Railway Station (Sinhala: හෙනරත්ගොඩ පැරණි දුම්රිය ස්ථානය, ගම්පහ, Tamil: ஹெனரத்கொட புகையிரத நிலையம்) is one of earliest railway stations in Sri Lanka. It is presently situated in the vicinity of Gampaha Railway Station in the middle of Gampaha town.
History
In the 19th century, the British rulers commenced the railway service in Sri Lanka for planters to facilitate the transportation of their harvest from inland to the seaport located in Colombo (Kesavan et al., 2015). On 3 August 1858, the then Ceylon Governor, Henry George Ward (1855-1860 A.D.) commenced the construction of the first railway line in the country to be run between Colombo and Ambepussa (Abeysinghe, 2016).
After the completion, the first train transportation happened between Colombo and Ambepussa on 27 December 1864 (Abeysinghe, 2016). Besides the stations at Colombo (present Colombo Terminus Railway Station) and Ambepussa, three more stations at Mahara (present Ragama), Henarathgoda (present Gampaha) and Veyangoda were completed along the railway line in 1866 (CGR, 1964). In 1867, the Railway Station at Peradeniya was built.
A protected monument
The Building that accommodated the old Henerathgoda Railway Station in the Gampaha town situated within the region of 223 Medagama I, Grama Niladhari in the Gampaha Divisional Secretariat Division is an archaeological protected monument, declared by a government gazette notification published on 13 February 2009.
References
1) Abeysinghe, A.H.M.S.P., 2016. ශ්රී ලංකාවේ දුම්රිය කාර්මික පුරාවිද්යාව; නව මානයක් කරා රැගෙන යමු. Puraveda 2016.
2) CGR, 1964. Ceylon Government Railway: One hundred years, 1864-1964, Colombo. p.19.
3) Kesavan, R.A., Chandrakumar, C., Kulatunga, A.K., Gowrynathan, J., Rajapaksha, R.T.D., Senewiratne, R.K.G.D.M. and Laguleshwaran, D., 150 Years of Sri Lankan Railways: Evaluation of the Services from Employee and Customer Perspectives. International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering. Volume 5, Issue 5.
4) The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka: No: 1589. 13 February 2009. p.192.
2) CGR, 1964. Ceylon Government Railway: One hundred years, 1864-1964, Colombo. p.19.
3) Kesavan, R.A., Chandrakumar, C., Kulatunga, A.K., Gowrynathan, J., Rajapaksha, R.T.D., Senewiratne, R.K.G.D.M. and Laguleshwaran, D., 150 Years of Sri Lankan Railways: Evaluation of the Services from Employee and Customer Perspectives. International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering. Volume 5, Issue 5.
4) The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka: No: 1589. 13 February 2009. p.192.
Location Map
This page was last updated on 27 June 2022