Kolkata

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the city. For the namesake district, see Kolkata district. For the metropolitan
area, see Kolkata metropolitan area. For the Indian Navy destroyer, see INS Kolkata (D63).
"Calcutta" redirects here. For other uses, see Calcutta (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Kozhikode.

Kolkata

Calcutta
Megacity

Clockwise from top: Victoria Memorial, St. Paul's

Cathedral, central business district, Howrah Bridge,
city tram line, Vidyasagar Bridge
Nickname(s): City of Joy
City of Palaces[1]
Cultural Capital of India[2][3]
[4][5][6]

Kolkata
Location of Kolkata in West Bengal

Coordinates:

2234N 8822ECoordinates:
2234N 8822E
Country
India
State
West Bengal
Division
Presidency
District
Kolkata[A]
Government
Type
MayorCouncil
Body
KMC
Mayor
Sovan Chatterjee[7]
Sheriff
Ranjit Mallik[8]
Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar[9]
Area[10]
Megacity
185 km2 (79.151 sq mi)
Metro
1,886.67 km2 (728.45 sq mi)
Elevation
9 m (30 ft)
[10][11]
Population (2011)
Megacity
4,496,694
Rank
7th
Density
24,000/km2 (57,000/sq mi)
14,112,536
Metro[12][13]
14,617,882 (Extended UA)

 Metropolitan rank
Demonym(s)
Time zone
ZIP code(s)
Area code(s)
Vehicle registration
UN/LOCODE
Official languages
Website

3rd
Kolkatan
IST (UTC+05:30)
700 001 to 700 162
+91-33
WB 01 to WB 10, WB 19 to
WB 22
IN CCU
Bengali and English
www.kmcgov.in

1.

1.

The Kolkata metropolitan area also includes

portions of North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas,
Howrah, Nadia, and Hooghly districts. See: Urban
structure.

This article contains Bengali text. Without

proper rendering support, you may see errors in
display.

Kolkata /kolkt/(Bengali: ) formerly Calcutta /klkt/(Bengali: ) is the

capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it is
the principal commercial, cultural, and educational centre of East India, while the Port of
Kolkata is India's oldest operating port and its sole major riverine port. In 2011, the city had
population of 4.5 million, while the population of the city and its suburbs was 14.1 million,
making it the third-most populous metropolitan area in India. In 2008 its gross domestic product
(adjusted for purchasing power parity) was estimated to be US$104 billion, which was the third
highest among Indian cities, behind Mumbai and Delhi.[14] As a growing city in a developing
country, Kolkata has pollution, traffic congestion, poverty, overcrowding, and other problems.
In the late 17th century, the three villages that predated Calcutta were ruled by the Nawab of
Bengal under Mughal suzerainty. After the Nawab granted the East India Company a trading
licence in 1690,[15] the area was developed by the Company into an increasingly fortified trading
post. Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah occupied Calcutta in 1756, and the East India Company retook it
the following year. In 1793 the East India company was strong enough to abolish Nizamat (local
rule), and assumed full sovereignty of the region. Under the company rule, and later under the
British Raj, Calcutta served as the capital of British-held territories in India until 1911, when its
perceived geographical disadvantages, combined with growing nationalism in Bengal, led to a
shift of the capital to New Delhi. Calcutta was the centre for the Indian independence movement;
it remains a hotbed of contemporary state politics. Following Indian independence in 1947,
Kolkata, which was once the centre of modern Indian education, science, culture, and politics,
suffered several decades of economic stagnation.
As a nucleus of the 19th- and early 20th-century Bengal Renaissance and a religiously and
ethnically diverse centre of culture in Bengal and India, Kolkata has local traditions in drama,
art, film, theatre, and literature. Many people from Kolkataamong them several Nobel

laureateshave contributed to the arts, the sciences, and other areas. Kolkata culture features
idiosyncrasies that include distinctively close-knit neighbourhoods (paras) and freestyle
intellectual exchanges (adda). West Bengal's share of the Bengali film industry is based in the
city, which also hosts venerable cultural institutions of national importance, such as the Academy
of Fine Arts, the Victoria Memorial, the Asiatic Society, the Indian Museum and the National
Library of India. Among professional scientific institutions, Kolkata hosts the Agri Horticultural
Society of India, the Geological Survey of India, the Botanical Survey of India, the Calcutta
Mathematical Society, the Indian Science Congress Association, the Zoological Survey of India,
the Institution of Engineers, the Anthropological Survey of India and the Indian Public Health
Association. Though home to major cricketing venues and franchises, Kolkata differs from other
Indian cities by giving importance to association football and other sports.