Kolkata

Kolkata is a big city in India. Long ago it was called Calcutta.

A wide river flows past it. At night, lights from tall buildings shine on the water.

Kolkata is the capital of West Bengal, a state in eastern India. It stretches along the Hooghly River. The city was once called Calcutta.

India's 2011 census, the latest one, counted 4,496,694 people in the city of Kolkata. Counted more widely, Kolkata is much bigger: UrbanRail.net, a guide to city railways, gives it more than 11 million inhabitants.

Kolkata is the capital of West Bengal, in eastern India, on the Hooghly River. Its core is the area governed by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, which counted 4,496,694 residents in the 2011 census, India's latest; counted more widely, the city is far larger, and UrbanRail.net gives it more than 11 million inhabitants.

The Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana describes two historic parts: a European-built core around the Maidan, a great open space by the river where the government buildings of British times stand, and an older, densely built city to the north, which crowds most closely near the Hooghly at both ends of Howrah Bridge.

Kolkata has a big memorial building made of marble. It stands in large gardens.

A giant steel bridge crosses the river. It joins the city to the other side.

The Victoria Memorial, a marble memorial to Queen Victoria built between 1906 and 1921, is one of Kolkata's most notable buildings. It stands where the Maidan, the city's open space by the river, meets Queen's Way, among 64 acres of gardens.

Howrah Bridge, which opened on 3 February 1943, joins Kolkata to Howrah across the Hooghly River. This steel bridge is 655.7 meters long and 85 meters high. The Indian Museum keeps treasures such as part of the railing of the ancient Bharhut stupa, from about 150 BC.

Among the city's buildings, the Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana singles out the Victoria Memorial (1921), a memorial to Queen Victoria built of Makrana marble, which stands among 64 acres of gardens where the Maidan meets Queen's Way. Howrah Bridge, opened on 3 February 1943, links the city center with the industrial district of Howrah across the Hooghly; Wikidata gives its length as 655.7 m and its height as 85 m.

The Indian Museum holds part of the balustrade of the Bharhut stupa (about 150 BC) and important collections of Greco-Buddhist, Gupta and post-Gupta sculpture. Across the river is Howrah railway station, and since 2024 a metro line has run beneath the Hooghly to reach it.

Kolkata had the first underground train in India. It opened a long time ago.

Now some trains even run in a tunnel under the river!

The Kolkata Metro was the first underground railway in India. Building began in 1973, and the first 3.4-kilometer section opened on 24 October 1984, between Esplanade and Bhowanipur. The north-south line kept growing for many years.

A newer east-west line, the Green Line, goes under the Hooghly River between the city and Howrah railway station. Its river section opened in 2024, and since 22 August 2025 trains have run along the whole line. People also cross the river on Howrah Bridge.

A 1971 master plan proposed five rapid transit lines, of which the north-south route was considered most important. Built mainly by cut-and-cover from 1973, its first section, Esplanade to Bhowanipur (now Netaji Bhaban), opened on 24 October 1984 as India's first subway line; by 1995 the line was 16.5 km long with 17 stations, and later extensions have taken it north to Dakshineswar (2021) and south on an elevated route.

The east-west Green Line, built from 2009, uses standard gauge, air-conditioned trains and platform screen doors. Between Mahakaran and Howrah station it runs beneath the Hooghly; the Howrah Maidan–Esplanade section opened on 6 March 2024, and the Esplanade–Sealdah link of 22 August 2025 allowed through service along the whole line.

A famous poet named Rabindranath Tagore was born in Kolkata. He won a big prize for his poems.

The city has an open space by the river, called the Maidan.

The poet Rabindranath Tagore was born in Calcutta in 1861. In 1913 he won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his poems, which he also put into English himself. In 1901 he started a school in Shantiniketan that mixed Indian and Western ideas.

Kolkata is a city of learning: the University of Calcutta was founded in 1857, and Jadavpur University in 1955. Beside the river lies the Maidan, an open space in the city.

Rabindranath Tagore, born in Calcutta on 7 May 1861, won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature for verse that, in the words of the prize citation, he had made "a part of the literature of the West" in his own English words. After studying in England in the late 1870s he returned to India, published poetry from the 1880s, and in 1901 founded an experimental school at Shantiniketan blending Indian and Western traditions; he died in Calcutta in 1941.

The city is a long-standing center of higher education: the University of Calcutta dates from 1857, Jadavpur University from 1955 and Rabindra Bharati University from 1962. The Maidan, the open space by the river, has the British-era government buildings around it and the older city to its north.