Bidhannagar


Bidhannagar or Salt Lake is a city in Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is close to Kolkata and also a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority. It was developed between 1958 and 1965 as a planned satellite city to accommodate the burgeoning population of Kolkata.

Demographics

At the 2011 census, Bidhannagar City had a population of 218,323 in an area of approx 13.16 square km with a density of about 16,590 persons per square kilometer. However, the area of Bidhannagar Municipality was 33.50 square km because it includes East Kolkata Wetlands area, where very few floating people live. Bidhannagar has an average literacy rate of 90.44%, with male literacy of 93.08% and female literacy of 87.69%.
The city has the second highest proportion of graduates in the country, only after Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar, also known as Mohali, which has 34.4 per cent of its population as graduates.

Geography

Bidhannagar is located at. It has an average elevation of 11 metres.

Administration

History of civic administration

Bidhannagar was originally developed and built under the direct administration of the Irrigation and Waterways Department of the Government of West Bengal. Initially, this planned city was under the South Dum Dum Municipality, then it came under the wings of the Public Works Department, which was renamed as the Urban Development Department in 1991. The whole area was divided into 5 sectors - Sector - I, Sector - II, Sector - III and Sector - IV as Residential Townships and Sector - V as Industrial Area. An administrator was also appointed to control all the municipal activities there.

Present

Ultimately in 1995, Bidhannagar got its own elected body called Bidhannagar Municipality consisting of 23 wards. All the plots of land in Bidhanannagar are leasehold plots and the Urban Development Department directly manages the land matters. East Kolkata Wetlands area is also included in Bidhannagar Municipality. The proposal for the merger of Bidhannagar Municipality with the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has been periodically mooted since 2011, but never realised due to different custodian of land and property tax-structures. Kolkata Airport, Rajarhat-Gopalpur, parts of South Dum Dum and Bidhannagar are already brought together under the jurisdiction of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate. On 18 June 2015, Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation was constituted by merging the existing municipal areas of Bidhannagar Municipality, Rajarhat-Gopalpur Municipality and the panchayat area of Mahishbathan II Gram Panchayat. Now Bidhannagar has 14 wards under Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation.
Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority was created in January 2006. It supplies water; maintains sewerage, roads, street signals; furnishes important buildings and collects property tax and fees in Sector - V.

Police

The Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate is responsible for law enforcement in the city.

Transport

The modes of transportation like other parts of Kolkata includes air conditioned/non-ac government/private buses, taxi and other popular options like auto rickshaw and e-rickshaws. The Howrah Maidan - Salt Lake Sector V - Teghoria Line of the Kolkata Metro is in operation since 14 February 2020 between Salt Lake Sector V and Salt Lake Stadium. The New Garia – Dum Dum Airport Line of the Kolkata Metro, which passes through the Salt Lake Bypass, is under-construction with cost inflation and delays

Colleges

Salt Lake City and Rajarhat Newtown are emerging as one of the largest IT destinations in India. Currently, the major IT corporates like TCS, Microsoft, Wipro etc. are having its campuses in the area. The area is also having many luxury malls like City Centre and Downtown mall and also many luxurious residencies.

Schools

Schools in Bidhannagar include the Hariyana Vidya Mandir, Bidhannagar Government High School, Bidhannagar Municipal School, a combined primary and high school and a branch of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, named Bhavan's Gangabux Kanoria Vidyamandir, Salt Lake School, Mother International School, Sri Aurobindo Institute of Education, Laban Hrad Vidyapith. Also there are two Kendriya Vidyalaya in Salt Lake viz. K.V. No. 1 Salt Lake and K.V. No. 2 Salt Lake.
Catholic schools include St. Joan's School, Our Lady Queen of the Missions School and St. Francis Xavier School.