Garden Reach

Garden Reach
Neighbourhood in Kolkata (Calcutta)
Country	India
State	West Bengal
City	Kolkata
Parliamentary constituencies	South Kolkata, Diamond Harbour
Assembly constituencies	Kolkata Port, Metiaburuz
Municipal Corporation	Kolkata Municipal Corporation
Ward(s)	80, 134, 135 136, 137, 138, 139, 140 and 141[1]
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)

Garden Reach is a neighbourhood of Kolkata in West Bengal, India. It is also known by its pars pro toto, Metiaburz.^[2] It is situated in the south eastern part of Kolkata near the bank of the Hooghly River.^[3][4] Localities within Garden Reach include Metiabruz, BNR Colony (Residential area of South Eastern Railway employees), Bartala, Bandhabartala, Sicklane etc.

Location

Garden Reach is situated at the eastern bank of the Hooghly River in the South western part of Kolkata. It is located north-east of Maheshtala, west of Kidderpore, and to the north of Taratala, Behala.

History

Nawab Wajid Ali Shah in exile

Gate of Sibtainbad Imambara, Metiabruz, Kolkata

Grave of Wajid Ali Shah at Sibtainbad Imambara, Metiabruz, Kolkata

This area is connected to the history of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, fifth King of Oudh, who after being ousted by the British made Garden Reach his refuge. Accompanied by his close relatives, musicians, cooks and animals from his menagerie, he came ashore at Bichali Ghat near Metiabruz on May 6, 1856. A year later when the First War of Independence spread to Lucknow and the sepoys installed one of his sons to the throne of Awadh, Wajid Ali Shah was imprisoned in Fort William by the British along with his Prime Minister, due to the fear that he could become a rallying figure for the sepoys. HEA Cotton wrote that "on Panic Sunday (June 14, 1857), there was wide spread apprehension among the white inhabitants of Kolkata because he had one, two, three thousand (no one knew) armed men under him".^[5] After his release from Fort William, he was "allotted" a building called BNR House, in Garden Reach-BNR Colony area, now a part of headquarters of South-Eastern Railway, Kolkata.^[6]

Heartbroken after leaving Lucknow, he tried to carve out a miniature of Lucknow in Metiabruz. In his exile in Metiabruz, he tried to keep the sweet memories of his Lucknow era alive by recreating the musical environments of his Kaisarbagh Baradari. The king spent his life lavishly out of his income of 12 lakhs (i.e., 1.2 million) rupees per annum and a "second Lucknow" arose in this area.^[5]The Imambara he created stands at the centre of Matiaburj.

Suriname Ghat

Baba and Mai statue at Suriname Ghat, Garden Reach, Kolkata

Owned by the Port Trust of India this Ghat is situated at the eastern bank of Hooghly river near Kolkata Port. It is named after the Caribbean country Suriname commemorating the indentured migration of Indian workers from this ghat to that country. A total of 64 sailing ships carried 34,300 workers to the country from 1873 to 1916.^[7] Suriname ghat is also popularly known as Balu Ghat.

In the Honour of Indian indentured workers who had migrated to Suriname, an aluminium statue of a plainly-dressed couple carrying a potli which symbolizes the first Indian man and woman to set foot on Suriname was set up as a memorial.It was unveiled by Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on 7 October 2015.The statue is a replica of the Baba and Mai monument in Paramaribo, Suriname's capital and is gifted by the government of Suriname.^[7][8]

Road transport

Transport system of the garden reach is one of the worst in the city.Road accident at Sicklane area (at Garden Reach Circular Road) near Kolkata Port is common due to the bad condition of road as well as traffic jam.The port area is congested primarily because of the trailers.^[9][10] However a fly over is now planned to be constructed spanning from the Ramnagar crossing in the Garden Reach area to Diamond Harbour Road (Mominpur) to reduce the congestion The foundation stone was laid on Saturday 1 March 2014 after being approved by Central Government.Its estimated project cost is of Rs 313.27 crore.^[11] The whole project is scheduled to be completed in two years and six months.^[12]

Industries

It is surrounded by many industries and factories. These include

• Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers--the premier Warship building Company in India, under the administrative control of Ministry of Defence.^[13]
• Videocon Glass and Appliances Factory
• Hindustan Unilever
• CESC Limited
• Danieli
• A bottling plant unit of IOCL.
• HPCL

Matiaburj is also famous for being the largest kite manufacturer in the world.

Educational institutions

Schools (Govt.) :

• Metiabruz High School
• Bengali Bazar High School
• Garden Reach Maulana Azad High School
• Maulana Hasrat Mohani Memorial Girls High School
• Garden Reach Mudiali High School
• Garden Reach Nut Behari Das School
• Kendriya Vidyalaya Garden Reach^[14]
• Arya Parishad Vidyalaya

Schools (Private) :

• St. Jacob School
• The Study Park

College(s):

• Metiabruz College
• Harimohan Ghose College

Police station

The Garden Reach Police Station is located just beside the 1/1A/1B Bus Stand. However, there are more police stations in the neighborhood like West Port P.S, Metiaburz P.S.

Crimes

Garden Reach is well known for crimes and anti-social clashes.

• On 11 February 2013 a police officer, Tapas Choudhury, was shot dead as members of the students' wings of Indian National Congress and Trinamool Congress violently clashed at Harimohan Ghose College while filling the nomination papers for the students' union election. Four students were injured in the violence.^[15][16]
• On 18 March 1984 during a clash between residents, a mob clashed with the police and the police fired several rounds. As a result, a deputy commissioner, Vinod Mehta and his bodyguard, Mokhtar Ali were killed by anti-socials.^[17][18]

References

Coordinates: 22°33′N 88°18′E / 22.550°N 88.300°E / 22.550; 88.300