Punjab: The iconic Dera Baba Nanak railway station is losing its heritage.

Punjab: The century-old Dera Baba Nanak railway station, the last railway stop before the border with Pakistan, is slowly losing its British-era identity as the last remaining residential quarters, which were part of the main structure, are being demolished. Authorities have begun the process of tearing down the last of the 14 residential quarters that once housed the station masters. There was a time when trains bound for Lahore, Sialkot, Kartarpur Sahib, and Narowal would whistle past at midnight, carrying the dreams of silent passengers. The station was a strategic crossroads of the British Empire, transporting people and goods across the region, and serving during both wartime and peacetime. Today, large padlocks hang on the doors outside the waiting room, stock room, and generator room. The townspeople, who witnessed history unfolding before their eyes in 2018 with the construction of the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor – which leads to Guru Nanak’s sacred shrine across the international border in Pakistan – have now given up hope of saving their beloved railway station. Baldev Singh Randhawa, president of Virasat Manch, Batala, an organization that looks after heritage buildings, including Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s summer palace in Dinanagar, told The Tribune, “This is a sad day for us. We tried our best, but our efforts failed.” Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, whose ancestral village Dharowali is near the station, said, “This magnificent building, with thousands of stories attached to it, will now finally crumble, and with it, a legacy will end.”
The last train to Pakistan departed from this station in late September 1947. After that, the narrow-gauge track leading to Pakistan was permanently closed, and the station was declared a terminus. Some people in Dera Baba Nanak believed that the Archaeological Survey of India would take notice of the station after the Kartarpur Corridor was built. A railway official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “When the corridor was built, we were confident that the station would be categorized as a heritage building. If Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) in Mumbai can get a heritage tag, why not Dera Baba Nanak?” Gurpreet Singh, who works as a trackman at the nearby level crossing, said, “The talk of granting heritage status to the station has been in the air for the past few years.” He is a third-generation railway employee; both his grandfather and father worked at this station. Gurpreet’s father added, “After the quarters, which were once the pride of the station, were demolished, our demand for a heritage tag automatically faded away.” Older residents recall a time when nearly 40 employees worked there. Later, the number of employees was reduced. It was further reduced, and now there is only one regular employee, a ticket booking clerk. The trade conducted here in the pre-independence era was the envy of the entire country. The station had three station masters, six gang members, four pointsmen, and a postman. Lecturer Harbhajan Singh said, “I was among those who wanted this place to be preserved exactly as it was built almost a hundred years ago. But everything is slowly crumbling.” He used to travel regularly from this station to Amritsar during his school days.