West Bengal is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of 88,752 km2 (34,267 sq mi) as of 2011. The population estimate as of 2023 is 102,552,787. West Bengal is the fourth-most populous and thirteenth-largest state by area in India, as well as the eighth-most populous country subdivision of the world. As a part of the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent, it borders Bangladesh in the east, and Nepal and Bhutan in the north. It also borders the Indian states of Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, Sikkim and Assam. The state capital is Kolkata, the third-largest metropolis, and seventh largest city by population in India. West Bengal includes the Darjeeling Himalayan hill region, the Ganges delta, the Rarh region, the coastal Sundarbans and the Bay of Bengal. The state's main ethnic group are the Bengalis, with the Bengali Hindus forming the demographic majority.
Kolkata, also known as Calcutta, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, 80 km (50 mi) west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary financial and commercial centre of eastern and northeastern India. Kolkata is the seventh most populous city in India with an estimated city proper population of 4.5 million (0.45 crore) while its metropolitan region Kolkata Metropolitan Area is third most populous metropolitan region of India with a metro population of over 15 million. Kolkata is regarded by many sources as the cultural capital of India and a historically and culturally significant city in the historic region of Bengal. It is the second largest Bengali-speaking city in the world. It has the highest number of Nobel laureates among all cities in India.
The Hooghly River or popularly called Ganga or Kati-Ganga in the Puranas, is a river that rises close to Giria, which lies north of Baharampur and Palashi in Murshidabad. It is the western distributary of the Ganges. The main course of the Ganges then flows into Bangladesh as the Padma. A man-made canal, built in the 1960s and early-1970s at Farakka, connects the Ganges, flowing through Malda, to the Hooghly to bring the abundant waters of the Himalayan river to the comparatively narrow river that rises in eastern West Bengal.
The Howrah Bridge is a balanced steel bridge over the Hooghly River in West Bengal, India. Commissioned in 1943, the bridge was originally named the New Howrah Bridge, because it replaced a pontoon bridge at the same location linking the twin cities of Howrah and Kolkata, which are located at the opposite banks of each other. On 14 June 1965, it was renamed Rabindra Setu after the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, who was the first Indian and Asian Nobel laureate. It is still popularly known as the Howrah Bridge.
Kolkata district is a district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It only contains the entire city proper of Kolkata, the capital city of the state and therefore it is a city district. It is the smallest district in the state and also the most densely populated district. Being a city district, the district itself is its own headquarters; it does not have further subdivisions like mahakumas or blocks that exist in all other districts of the state nor does it have a district magistrate. The sole local government of the whole district is Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
Binoy-Badal-Dinesh Bagh, shortened as B. B. D. Bagh, formerly called Tank Square and then Dalhousie Square, is the administrative, financial and commercial region and one of the central business districts of Kolkata, capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the seat of Government of West Bengal and houses all three branches of it. The area consists Writers' Building, the official state secretariat building, Raj Bhavan, the residence of Governor of West Bengal, Vidhansabha Bhavan, the building housing the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and also the Calcutta High Court.
Kolkata is the prime business, commercial and financial hub of eastern India and the main hub of communication for the North East Indian states. Kolkata, with a GDP (PPP) of $220 billion is home to India's oldest, stock exchange company (bourse) – The Calcutta Stock Exchange. Kolkata is home to many industrial units operated by large public- and private-sector corporations; major sectors include steel, heavy engineering, mining, minerals, cement, pharmaceuticals, food processing, agriculture, electronics, textiles, and jute.
Port of Kolkata or Kolkata Port, officially known as Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, is the only riverine major port in India, in the city of Kolkata, West Bengal, around 203 kilometres (126 mi) from the sea. It is the oldest operating port in India and was constructed by the British East India Company. Kolkata is a freshwater port with no variation in salinity. The port has two distinct dock systems – Kolkata Dock at Kolkata and a deep water dock at Haldia Dock Complex, Haldia.
Khidirpur or Kidderpore is a neighbourhood of South Kolkata in Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Sagar Island is an island in the Ganges delta, lying on the continental shelf of Bay of Bengal about 100 km south of Kolkata. This island forms the Sagar CD Block in Kakdwip subdivision of South 24 Parganas district in the Indian State of West Bengal. Although Sagar Island is a part of Sundarbans, it does not have any tiger habitation or mangrove forests or small river tributaries as is characteristic of the overall Sundarban delta. This island is a place of Hindu pilgrimage. Every year on the day of Makar Sankranti, hundreds of thousands of Hindus gather to take a holy dip at the confluence of river Ganges and Bay of Bengal and offer prayers (puja) in the Kapil Muni Temple. Kolkata Port Trust has a pilot station and a light house.
The economy of West Bengal is a mixed middle-income developing social market economy and the largest Eastern Indian economy with a substantial public sector. It is the India's sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP.
Canning is a town of the South 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is situated on the western banks of the Matla River. It is the headquarters of the Canning subdivision.
Kolkata Eye was the proposed name for a giant Ferris wheel which it was hoped would be constructed in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was announced in 2011, and in May 2014 Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal, stated "[it] is expected to be ready in a year's time", but it was never built.
Ward No. 21, Kolkata Municipal Corporation is an administrative division of Kolkata Municipal Corporation in Borough No. 4, covering parts of Jorabagan and Malapara neighbourhoods in North Kolkata, in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Ward No. 22, Kolkata Municipal Corporation is an administrative division of Kolkata Municipal Corporation in Borough No. 4, covering parts of Posta neighbourhood in North Kolkata, in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Sagar Port is a proposed seaport in Sagar Island, West Bengal, India by the Government of India and Government of West Bengal. IIT Madras has been engaged to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) for the port, involving studies for shore-protection, land reclamation and physical modeling for use of dredge material. Cost of the port build up will be ₹30 billion. The port is scheduled to have an initial capacity to handle 60 million tonnes of bulk and containerised cargo. A rail cum road bridge over the Muriganga river is proposed to connect the Sagar Island to the mainland via Kakdwip. The length of rail-road bridge is 3.3 km.
The Haldia Port, officially Haldia Dock Complex (HDC), is a port on the confluence of the Haldi River and the Hooghly River. The port is located at Haldia in West Bengal, about 130 kilometres (81 mi) from the sandheads–deep sea area of the Bay of Bengal, 45 kilometres (28 mi) upstream from Pilotage Station at Sagar and 104 km downstream of Kolkata. In 1968, an oil jetty was commissioned at Haldia, and officially in 1977 the port facility of Haldia started functioning as a subsidiary port of the Port of Kolkata under the name Haldia Dock Complex.
The countries of the Bay of Bengal include littoral and landlocked countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia that depend on the bay for maritime usage. Historically, the Bay of Bengal has been a highway of transport, trade, and cultural exchange between diverse peoples encompassing the Indian subcontinent, Indochinese peninsula, and Malay Archipelago. Today, the Bay of Bengal region is the convergence of two major geopolitical blocs- the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) promotes regional engagement in the area.
Water transport in India has played a significant role in the country's economy and is indispensable to foreign trade. India is endowed with an extensive network of waterways in the form of rivers, canals, backwaters, creeks and a long coastline accessible through the seas and oceans. It has the largest carrying capacity of any form of transport and is most suitable for carrying bulky goods over long distances.
Total length of road in West Bengal is 92,023 kilometers. Among these national highway are 2,377 kilometers, and state highway 2,393 kilometers. The road density of the state is 103.69 kilometers per 100 square kilometers ; the national density is 74.7 kilometers per 100 square kilometers. The average speed of the road in the state is between 40 and 50 kilometers/hour. The speed in the village and urban areas is between 20 and 25 kilometers/hour. This is the main reason the road is low and lack of maintenance. The total length of the railway line in the state is 3,825 kilometers. Indian Railways' Eastern Railway zone and South Eastern Railway zone Headquarter are located in Kolkata. The railways on the north side of the state Under the Northeast Frontier Railway. Kolkata Metro is India's first underground metro rail service. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, part of the Northeast Frontier Railway, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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