By 1871 Railway lines had been laid till Goalundo (now in Bangladesh), and proved profitable to the Eastern Bengal Railway (EBR). Such was the good dividend being obtained that its directors shot down any proposal for extension towards Siliguri, let alone Darjeeling. Thus it was left to the state-owned Northern Bengal Railway (NBR) to lay a track from Poradaha to Damukdiya on the right bank of the Ganga (13 miles), and then a metre-gauge stretch from Saraghat on the left bank to Siliguri (197 miles), the Ganga crossing being made on steam ferries. But neither NBR nor EBR was willing to take on the hills of Darjeeling, and sink money in an enterprise that appeared to be unprofitable.