Basirhat

This article is about the municipality in West Bengal, India. For 1 its namesake subdivision, see Basirhat subdivision. For 2 its namesake community development block, see Basirhat I. For 3 Another namesake community development block, see Basirhat II.
Basirhat
বসিরহাট
city
Basirhat

Location in West Bengal, India

Coordinates: 22°39′26″N 88°53′39″E / 22.65722°N 88.89417°E / 22.65722; 88.89417Coordinates: 22°39′26″N 88°53′39″E / 22.65722°N 88.89417°E / 22.65722; 88.89417
Country  India
State West Bengal
District North 24 Parganas
Government
 • Municipality Chairman TAPAN [1]
Elevation 6 m (20 ft)
Population (2011)
 • Total 144,891
Languages
 • Official Bengali, English
Time zone IST (UTC+5:30)
PIN 743411
Area code(s) 3217
Lok Sabha constituency Basirhat
Vidhan Sabha constituency Basirhat Dakshin, Basirhat Uttar
Website basirhat.in

Basirhat is a city and a municipality in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, India. It is located on the bank of Ichamati (Ichhamati) River.

Road from station to Basirhat market area

Administrative Area

Basirhat subdivision was formed on 1 January 1861 as per a Government order and it consisted of Balia Pargana's Basurhāt, Kalingā, Hāruā and Husenābād Police Stations. Previously, Basirhat was under the jurisdiction of Barasat sub-division and was named as Basurhāt till 1896. Basirhat municipality was established on 1 April 1869 and it is divided into 23 wards covering an area of 22.5 km².

Demographics

As per the 2011 census, Basirhat Urban Agglomeration had a population of 144,891, out of which 73,491 were males and 71,400 were females. The 0–6 years population was 12,578. Effective literacy rate for the 7+ population was 86.88 per cent.[2] Bengali is the principal language spoken in the area.

Etymology

The sources which are considered till now behind the naming of Basirhat are as follows:

Economy

Agriculture is the main source of income though other industries like brick making,Gamcha,Nolen Sandesh and fisheries are also dominant in this area.

Education

Some of the schools of Basirhat are:

The Front Gate of Bhabla Tantra Sir Rajendra High School

History

Basirhat has a long history of farmer's movements like the Tebhaga movement. Freedom fighter Dinesh Chandra Majumder was born here in 1907. Noted industrialist, Sir Rajen Mukherjee[3][4] was born at Bhabla (also spelt Bhyabla) near Basirhat.

Health issues

Basirhat is one of the areas where ground water is affected by arsenic contamination.[5]

Transportation

Railways

Basirhat was connected with Barasat by the narrow gauge Barasat Basirhat Railway operated by Martin's Light Railways. It was closed down in 1955 and subsequently converted to broad gauge. The railway tracks in the region have been electrified and there are EMUs services to Sealdah and Hasnabad provided by the Kolkata Suburban Railway.

Roadway

Bus services to Kolkata and other places are available.

Private Buses

DN Series of Routes

MM Series of Routes

References

  1. ↑ Official District Administration site Archived August 20, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ "Urban Agglomerations/Cities having population 1 lakh and above" (PDF). Provisional Population Totals, Census of India 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-21.
  3. ↑ Sengupta, Subodh Chandra and Bose, Anjali, p 470.
  4. ↑ Bhabla
  5. ↑ "Groundwater Arsenic contamination in West Bengal-India (19 years study )". Groundwater arsenic contamination status of North 24-Parganas district, one of the nine arsenic affected districts of West Bengal-India. SOES. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-24.

Basirhat External Links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/26/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.