Falta, South 24 Parganas

Falta
—  town  —
Falta
Location of Falta
in West Bengal and India
Coordinates
Country India
State West Bengal
District(s) South 24 Parganas
Parliamentary constituency Diamond Harbour
Assembly constituency Falta
Population

• Density

 221,589 (2001)

• 1,653 /km2 (4,281 /sq mi)
Time zone IST (UTC+05:30)
Area 134.06 square kilometres (51.76 sq mi)
Website s24pgs.gov.in

Falta (Bengali: ফলতা) is a town with a Special Economic Zone and a police station in Diamond Harbour subdivision of South 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal.

Contents

Geography

Falta is located at

History

When Siraj-ud-Daulah sacked Kolkata in 1756, the English residents moved to Falta temporarily.[1]

Economics

An Export Processing Zone (EPZ) was established by the government of India at Falta in 1984. It later became a Free Trade Zone (FTZ) and subsequently became a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) under the West Bengal SEZ Act, 2003. It was the first SEZ act passed by any state government in India. Therefore, the Falta SEZ was the first SEZ in India. After the government of India passed the SEZ Act in 2005, the Falta SEZ came under the purview of this act.[2] A Special Economic Zone is a specially delineated duty free enclave and is deemed to be foreign territory for the purpose of trade operations and duties and tariffs. The units in the Zone have to export their entire production and are granted certain entitlements.[3]

Falta SEZ was set up over 280 acres of land It has 271 companies, of which 107 are closed. About 60% of the workforce in the SEZ are women.[2]In 2003-04, export from Falta stood at about Rs 1,500 crore,[4]

Transport

The Kalighat Falta Railway was a 2' 6" gauge railway track. It was one of the four lines built in the early part of the twentieth century by McLeod and Company, all of them in and around Kolkata. The 26.95 miles long railway track was opened on 28 May 1917 from Gholeshapur to Falta and was extended a further 0.92 miles to Majherat on 7 May 1920. It was closed in 1957.[5]

References

  1. ^ Calcutta the Living City, Vol I, edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, p.9, Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b "Falta SEZ in West Bengal - A fact-finding report on workers and environmental impact". Sanhati. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/1942/. Retrieved 2010-03-23. 
  3. ^ "Falta Special Economic Zone". http://services.indiabizclub.com/profile/1898720~falta_special_economic_zone~calcutta. Retrieved 2010-03-23. 
  4. ^ "Falta SEZ units seek simpler norms". Business Standard, 30 August 2004. http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/falta-sez-units-seek-simpler-norms/161826/. Retrieved 2010-03-23. 
  5. ^ Baker, Allan C. "AK16 Steam Locomotive". Indian Railways magazine, July-August 1997. http://www.irfca.org/~apub/katwa/index.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-27.