Tollygunge

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tollygunge is a suburban locality of South Kolkata. It is flanked by the Eastern Railway south suburban line to the north, Lake Gardens and Golf Green in the east, the Pashchim & Purba Putiaries in the south, and Behala in the west.

[edit] History

Tollygunge is named after Major William Tolly, the Ferdinand de Lesseps of Calcutta, who in 1775-76 started a project to excavate and dredge the Tolly's Nullah (also named for him) as a passage for the people of East Bengal and Assam to Calcutta. He was also granted a license to collect toll from the passing boats and permitted to open a gunj or market on the eastern bank of the nullah by the British East India Company.

The dream project of Major Tolly became fully alive in 1776 and subsequently it was opened to navigation in 1777. Since then, this 17 miles long canal is known as Tolly's Nullah and the market of Major Tolly as Tollygunge which was somewhere near Tollygunge Road on the eastern bank of this Nullah. Now a large area on both sides of the Nullah bears the name Tollygunge.

Today, Tollygunge is one of the premium localities of Kolkata. Tollywood, the centre of the Bengali film industry is at Tollygunge.

Tollygunge Railway Station is located on the Budge Budge section of the Kolkata Suburban Railway service. It is also the beginning point of Kolkata's underground railway Kolkata Metro with stations at Rabindra Sarobar and Tollygunge. There is an overground extension of the Metro Railway being constructed as of now which will extend the Meto's range to beyond Tollygunge and up to Garia. Tollygunge also has the tram service which links it to Ballygunge and B.B.D. Bagh.

Residents of Tollygunge have now been facilitated with easy access to the Kolkata Airport in the northern fringes with regular air conditioned bus services initiated by the city transport authorities.

It is one of the most rapidly developing areas of Kolkata with property rates hitting the roof in recent times.