Khardaha

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Khardaha
State - District(s)	West Bengal - North 24 Parganas
Area
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
Population (2001) - Density	116,252 -

Khardaha is a city and a municipality in North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Local stories date it back to the time of Sri Chaitanya. It is said that he once arrive to this place in a boat of hay ('Khar' in Bengali) and hence the name Khardaha. "Daha" means water bodies. It was full of water bodies at that time as it was for the entire southern part of Bengal.

1 Geography
2 Economy
3 Demographics
4 Places of interest

[edit] Geography

It is a rail-station on the Sealdah-Ranaghat section, sandwiched between Sodepur (to the south) and Titagarh (to the north). Usually, the western side of the rail-station is called Khardaha and the eastern side is called Rahara. Khardaha is only 20 km away from Calcutta city center.

The western part of Khardaha is a much older settlement. The eastern part "Rahara" is a much newer settlement. It used to be dense forest even 200 years back. The place was named after famous dacoit "Rada" (pronunciation - Raw-ra) of late 17th Century.

[edit] Economy

Over time it became prosperous because of its proximity to Calcutta. One jamindar (landlord of a vast area) built 12 Shiv Temples here similar to Benaras so that people didn't have to go to Benaras.

[edit] Demographics

As of 2001 India census^GRIndia, Khardaha had a population of 116,252. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Khardaha has an average literacy rate of 81%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 83%, and female literacy is 79%. In Khardaha, 8% of the population is under 6 years of age.