Dhakuria

Dhakuria is a locality in the city of Kolkata, (previously Calcutta), in West Bengal, India.

Dhakuria
Neighbourhood in Kolkata (Calcutta)
Dhakuria
Location in Kolkata
Coordinates: 22.5104°N 88.3711°E / 22.5104; 88.3711
Country India
StateWest Bengal
CityKolkata
DistrictKolkata[1][2][3]
Kolkata Suburban RailwayDhakuria railway station
Metro StationKalighat, Rabindra Sarobar, Hemanta Mukherjee(under construction) and Kavi Sukanta(under construction)
Municipal CorporationKolkata Municipal Corporation
KMC wards90, 91, 92, 93
Time zoneUTC+5:30 (IST)
Area code(s)+91 33
Lok Sabha constituencyKolkata Dakshin
Vidhan Sabha constituencyRashbehari, Kasba

It is located in the southern part of the city and is surrounded by Ballygunge and Kasba in the north, Haltu in the east, Jadavpur/ Garia in the south and Lake Gardens/ Jodhpur Park in the west. It has a Postal Index Number (PIN) code of 700 031. Some localities adjacent to Golpark and Jodhpur Park also have Postal Index Number (PIN) code of 700 029 and 700 068 respectively.

The locality is sometimes referred to as the middle class and currently growing very well off upper-middle-class people's locality in South Kolkata. Though it is surrounded by its rich and famous areas, over the years it still remains primarily a nice upper-middle-class neighbourhood. Apart from its critical location in South Kolkata/Calcutta, it is also a place inhabited by prominent people with strong social, artistic and cultural background. The place has got homes of many celebrities and up coming artists, social workers, thinkers, entrepreneurs and visionaries who reside in Kolkata and some outside India.

The important landmarks that signify this locality are Dhakuria railway station, 37 no private bus terminal, Dhakuria AMRI Hospital and Gariahat Road (South).

AMRI Hospital, Dhakuria

Etymology

The word Dhakuria is from the word 'Dhaakur' (in Bengali: 'ঢাকুর') which means lakes, ponds. Previously, this area had many lakes.

Others say, Dhakuria is also name of a place in East Pakistan (now: Bangladesh). Peoples of East Pakistan who were migrated here and lived here. In memory of their old living place they were called the same name for this place.

History

The history of Dhakuria stretches back at least two hundred years to early 1800s. Even after large scale modernization in the last decade involving demolition of older homes and buildings, there are several buildings that still exist today that predate 1900.

The rapid population growth of Dhakuria, similar to rest of the City of Kolkata, can be traced back to the late fifties. At that time the southern city limits were up to Ballygunge Lake areas (now known as Golpark). By early sixties, neighbouring Jodhpur Park, which was earlier a sparsely populated area, also had become a favorite destination for several upscale single family residential home development projects.

The areas beyond the Eastern railway tracks at Golpark started developing with large numbers of people building up their homes there. The area was very different from the neighbouring Ballygunge. While Ballygunge dotted the homes of the rich, wide tree lined roads (at Golpark, Southern Avenue), Dhakuria was marked with comparatively narrow lanes and bylanes. The nomenclature of most of the sub localities of this area bear the mark of age old family dominances viz. Roypara, Bannerjeepara, Daspara, Ghoshpara, Mukherjeepara, Biswaspara, Naskarpara etc. The Pakrashi’s were amongst the first few families who came and started residing here since early 1820s. The Dhakuria Kalibari was founded by the Pakrashi family only.

After the introduction of Dakshinapan, a multi-stage shopping mall and one of the first of its kind in Kolkata, at the west boundary of Dhakuria in early 80s, the area started getting an upmarket look.[4] Since then, Dhakuria's population is swelling with well educated, middle-class people because of its good neighbourhood and schools, low crime rate and proximity to other city amenities. The area is spread over four wards of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, namely Ward No. 90, 91, 92 and 93. Dhakuria is currently under Rashbehari Assembly Territory and Kasba Assembly Territory. Both Assembly Territories are under Kolkata Dakshin Parliamentary Constituency. With time Dhakuria has become one of the prominent locations of South Kolkata.

Educational institutions
  • The Modern Academy (ICSE/ISC)
  • Dhakuria Ram Chandra High School
  • Binodini Girls High School
  • Dhakuria Sree Ramkrishna High School
  • Sree Ram Roy Institution
  • Lake Point Convent School
  • Pareshnath Balika Bidyalaya
  • Pravabati Sishu Shikshayatan
  • Andrews High School
  • Sri Aurobindo Seva Kendra School Of Nursing
  • Bengal Music College

Places of interest
  • Dhakuria Post Office (700031)
  • Dhakuria Rail Overbridge (Renamed as Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Setu in 2013)
  • Dakshinapan shopping center
  • Rabindra Sarobar (Dhakuria Lake)
  • Babubagan and CIT Scheme (famous for Sarbojanin Durga Puja)
  • Japanese Buddhist Temple
  • Miniature of Howrah Bridge at Dhakuria Lake (known as Hanging Bridge), Swimming Pool & Rowing Clubs
  • Lake Kalibari
  • Birla academy, 60 ft Idol of lord Krishna at Birla Academy
  • Rabindra Sarobar Stadium
  • Indian Oil Bhawan (State Head Office of Indian Oil Corporation)
  • Office of Income Tax (South Kolkata Region)
  • Madhusudan Mancha (A theatre for Arts and Cultural performances)
  • Dhakuria Kalibari (Temple)
  • Tanupukur Sishu Udyan (Children Park)
  • Ganguly Pukur (Public Pool)
  • Dhakuria Public Library (A century old library, founded in 1904)
  • CLT (Children Little Theater, Estd- 1951).
Dakshinapan shopping center
Madhusudan Mancha

Famous people from Dhakuria
gollark: Chrome is a gas and expands to fill all available memory.
gollark: Exactly 5.
gollark: Do they need servers for things?
gollark: Or possibly to receive and decode them, I forgot.
gollark: And because the government is bad it is in fact illegal to receive those.

See also

References
  1. "Kolkata South district".
  2. "South 24 Parganas district".
  3. "web.archieve.org" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 May 2013.
  4. "Dakshinapan Shopping Complex".

Kolkata/South travel guide from Wikivoyage

22°30′37″N 88°22′16″E

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