History

Ramban is a town in the Ramban District in Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. It lies on the banks of the Chenab river, on the National Highway-1A (now NH44) at about 150 km from Jammu and about 150 km from Srinagar, making it almost the central point on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.

Before the formation of the J&K State in 1846, there was a small village consisting of 15 houses on the right bank of Chenab river known as Nashband (later ‘Ramban’). When Raja Gulab Singh of Jammu became the Maharaja of J&K State, he adopted Jammu-Udhampur-Banihal route to reach Srinagar for the movement of royal carvans.

In this process, Ramban got the status of halting station for the royal Carvans. The Dogras constructed a pacca building near present Ramban and a wooden bridge for the crossing of Chenab River. Sukhdev Singh Chadak writes in his book ‘Maharaja Ranbir Singh’ that Maharaja passed order for a cart road from Jammu to Srinagar via Banihal and a suspension bridge over Chenab River at Ramban. This road became national highway and now it is being converted into four lanes. With the development of this road, the halting station Ramban also developed a lot and now it has got the status of District Headquarters.