Kolkata and it's Metropoletan area

The city of Kolkata covers an area of 185 sq km (71 sq mi). It lies near the southern third of the metropolitan area, which is known as the Kolkata Metropolitan District (KMD).

The KMD covers an area of 1246 sq km (481 sq mi) and is comprised of nearly 500 units of local government, including three municipal corporations and 29 municipalities.

Roads and railways make up the main traffic arteries, and a bypass road has been built east of the city to facilitate through traffic.

The Hugli River runs through the KMD. As during colonial times, industries are located on both banks of the Hugli and along railroad lines.

Financial, administrative, and trade activities are concentrated in the city’s Central Business District (CBD), which lies just east of the Hugli River, and its immediate surroundings.

The center of the CBD covers an area that includes Kolkata’s major landmark, the Maidān, which is a large park containing many fine drives, a golf course, a racecourse, cricket grounds, several soccer fields, and the historic new Fort William (completed in 1781) of the English East India Company.

The residential settlements follow a linear pattern along highlands provided by Hugli River levees and on the intervening levees of old, dried up rivers.

Between and beyond the levees to the east and west of the Hugli are the lowlands, which are prone to flooding during the rainy months; parts of the lowlands have been filled or drained for additional settlements.

Low-income settlements are located in the lowlands. Such slums are found all over, but with a concentration at the fringes of the urban areas.

Slum structures are characterized by flimsy materials, lack of underground sewerage, unsanitary conditions, and tenements of one-room apartments.

Architectural monuments in Kolkata date mostly from colonial times. After an attack on the old Fort William (situated east of Dalhousie Square) in 1756 by Siraj-ud-Dawlah, the Muslim ruler of Bengal, a new, sturdier Fort William was built about 1.5 km (about 1 mi) south of the old site near the Hugli River in the Maidān.

At the heart of the CBD lies BBD Bagh or the former Dalhousie Square.

On the north side of the square is the Writers’ Building (1880), which houses the state government ministries.

To the west of the square is the General Post Office, which features a high reinforced concrete dome.

Two blocks southwest of the square is the Gothic-style High Court (1872), with a 55-m (180-ft) high tower that is modeled after the Cloth Hall of Ieper, Belgium.

The massive Victoria Memorial Hall, completed in 1921, sits at the southern end of the Maidān; it is built in a Renaissance design with Indian influences.

Dakshineswar Temple, built in the 19th century, is north of the city limits on the Hugli River; its design is influenced by the thatched bamboo huts of southern Bengal.

A building of similar design located just north of Kolkata on the river is Belur Math, which houses a monastery and the headquarters of the Ramkrishna Mission.

Parasnath Jain Temple (1867), Marble Palace (1835), and Nakhoda Mosque (1926) are other architectural landmarks in the Kolkata area.

Other places of interest in Kolkata are the fashionable Jawaharlal Nehru (formerly Chowringhee) Road, the city’s main thoroughfare; the Raj Bhavan (1802; formerly called the Government House), the state governor’s residence; the Indian Museum (1875), which contains noted displays on archaeology and natural history; and the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum.

The Botanical Gardens (1786) in Hāora (or Howrah), Kolkata’s twin city, features many tropical plants in addition to a famous banyan tree, the branches of which spread 381 m (1250 ft) in circumference.