Salt Lake City in Kolkata

A Crash Course into Salt Lake's History

Salt Lake is a satellite township in the northern fringes of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Because this township was created by filling salt water lakes between 1958 and 1965, this place came to be known as Salt Lake. But the official name is Bidhannagar, named after Bidhan Chandra Ray - the then Chief Minister of West Bengal.

Originally, this township was developed to accommodate the growing middle-class population of Kolkata. Therefore, the Roy-government and subsequent CPM-led Leftist government undertook cheap housing projects and distributed lands to people at subsidized rates. Currently, this township is home to two-hundred-thousand plus residents (myself included).

I will try to explain some common questions and concerns that many people have about Salt Lake in my subsequent posts. A lot of those can be explained by considering how (by filling salt water lakes) and why (to accommodate the growing middle-class population) Salt Lake was created.

What People Say About Salt Lake

1> Salt Lake is not well connected to other parts of Kolkata
2> If you don't have your own transport, you can't get around without difficulties
3> Salt Lake is like a maze: difficult to find what one is looking for
4> People here don't help strangers looking for an address
5> It's unsafe
6> It's very quiet
7> There are not many shops around
8> Everything in here is costly
9> You have to buy drinking water
10> There are no cinema halls
11> Property prices are insanely high