Sodepur

Sodepur
সোদপুর
Neighbourhood in Kolkata (Calcutta)

Amarabati More is a busy crossing on 6 no. Barasat road at Sodepur.
Sodepur

Location in Kolkata

Coordinates: 22°43′N 88°23′E / 22.71°N 88.39°ECoordinates: 22°43′N 88°23′E / 22.71°N 88.39°E
Country  India
State West Bengal
City Kolkata
Railway station Sodepur
Elevation 15 m (49 ft)
Languages
 • Official Bengali, English, Hindi
Time zone IST (UTC+5:30)
PIN 700110
Lok Sabha constituency Dum Dum
Vidhan Sabha constituency Panihati

Sodepur (Bengali: সোদপুর) is a popular place in north Kolkata, formerly Calcutta. It is a part of Panihati Municipality under Barrackpore sub-division of the state of West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority.[1]

The major landmark of modern Sodepur is the shopping complex named Sriniketan, and residential complex like Peerless Nagar and the high rise (Skyscraper) residential complex like Godrej Prakriti. Perpendicular to the railway track (Sealdah-Ranaghat line) is the Sodepur Station Road, which is Sodepur's major shopping area. This road is lined with shops in both sides selling various brands such as Adidas, Reebok, Hoffmen, Trigger, Titan eye plus, World of Titan, Reliance fresh, Peter England, The Raymond Shop, Elite, Khadims, Bata, Vidyasagar A.C Market, & many more. The Sodepur railway station lies on the right of this road. The Health-CheckUp System for people of Sodepur consists of private Nursing Homes and private practitioners apart from one State General Hospital. It has also a world class eye hospital named Vasan Eye Care .There is an Ayurved medicine shops like Natural Ayurvedic Centre whose main focus is to promote the traditional medicines of India. There are many high profile projects to get finalized in Sodepur which includes the posh residential township of Godrej Prakriti which is one of the largest luxury housing project of north Kolkata and also proposed IT hub of north Kolkata and also various malls coming up at various locations at Sodepur. Again Sodepur is all set to get directly connected by metro rail and also by the proposed Kolkata Monorail.

Geography

Sodepur is located at 22°43′N 88°23′E / 22.71°N 88.39°E.[2] It has an average elevation of 15 m (49 ft).

 Sukchar Khardaha Natagarh
Panihati Madhyamgram
   Sodepur  
Agarpara Agarpara Agarpara

Transport

Kolkata new proposed metro rout (Baranagar - Barrackpore)

From Shyambazar 5 pt. Crossing, one can go straight through the Barrackpore Trunk Road {BT Road} until one reaches Sodepur Petrol Pump Bus Stop. Bus Routes available are 214A, 214, 78/1, 78, 78C/1, 56, Palta-Garia Bus stand WBSTC, Khotirbazar-Barrackpur, K-9,S-11, Barasat-Dakhineshwar, Barasat- Dhulagarh, Duttapukur- Dakhineshwar,Naihati- Technopolis [Saltlake], Khardaha-Digha etc. One can also take shuttle taxis from near Shyam bazar Metro up to Sodepur Petrol Pump. These shuttle Taxis usually charge Rs. 30-35 per person.

From Dunlop, one can take auto rickshaw till Sodepur Petrol Pump.

Those wishing to reach Sodepur from the Howrah Line or from the other side of the River Ganges can avail the Ferry service from Konnagar and then take an auto rickshaw till the Sodepur Railway Station.[3]

From the Kolkata Airport,you can reach Sodepur via the Sodepur Road which starts from Madhyamgram four point crossing (Chowrasta)here and the bus services are 78E and DN-43, You can avail AutoRickshaw services also. From Dunlop (or from Barahanagar Road Railway Station) you can avail any of the buses coming from Shyambazar to reach Sodepur.The Sodepur- Kalyani Expressway has been constructed connecting Kalyani township to Birati and Dumdum Airport.

It is easier to reach Sodepur along Sealdah-Ranaghat Line. All the suburban trains of Eastern Railways from Main Section of Sealdah Station go via Sodepur and most of those stop here. It takes about 30 mins to reach Sodepur from Sealdah.

Another way is to catch underground railway (Metro Rail) and reach DumDum Junction and from there via a train to Sodepur, which will take about 15 mins to reach.

Private Buses

DN Series of Routes

MM Series of Routes

K Series of Routes

JM Series of Routes

STA Bus Routes

WBSTC Franchisee Bus Routes

Bus Routes without Numbers

CSTC Bus Routes

Education

The oldest school at Sodepur is Sodepur High School which is affiliated to West Bengal Board. It was established in 1853. This school is one of the oldest in West Bengal. The other popular schools here are:

In the area of Higher Education, there are:

These colleges are all affiliated to West Bengal University of Technology and approved by AICTE, apart from these prestigious colleges there is also a homeopathy college, Sikkim Manipal University's study center 00892 (Distance Education) and numerous professional institutes. The overall literacy rate of Sodepur is quite high (about 90%) compared to other surrounding areas.

Most of the people in Sodepur are service personnel either in Government sector, semi- government sector or in private sectors. There is also presence of super rich executive class at Sodepur in a substantial amount. Others include software engineers, doctors, businessmen who mostly have a high standard of living. There are many shops where some of the unskilled people are employed. Though educational level of Sodepur is very high (about > 85% literate at graduate or Secondary level standard) the unemployment rate is low due to the presence of industries and business houses there. There are some industries running successfully in the vicinity of this area. The car owning percentage of Sodepur is one of the highest in any suburb of Kolkata with about 400 cars per 1000 families. The boom in population High earning class in Sodepur and greater Sodepur region will give a boost to the standard of living and retail sector of the region in times to come. Sodepur has got many historical aspects like resthouse of Rabindranath tagore, Syam er Mandir, Baromondir Ghat, Mahotsab tala Ghat, where Nitai/ Chaitanya Dev came .

Banks

Banks located here are:

ATM located here are:

Restaurants/Cafe

History

Once a community named SAYYID used to live in this area from which the place was known as SAYYIDPUR or SODEPUR.[4] Sodepur in the Barrackpore sub division, is historically famous for the Khadi Prathistan where historic decisions with regard to freedom struggle were taken by Gandhiji and other great leaders like Subhas Chandra Bose. In 1921, Satish Chandra Dasgupta, eminent chemist, resigned from Bengal Chemicals influenced by the Gandhian thought of Swadeshi and set up the Ashram . This ashram near the Sodepur Railway Station has a special place in the history of the Indian independence movement. Gandhi termed this ashram as his second home and stayed at this Ashram at various times 1939, 1945, 1946, 1947 and lived here for five to seven weeks. Sodepur is Mostly occupied by the people those were uprooted from Bangladesh (East Pakistan) and those came as refugee in Bangladesh War. Majority of the population of sodepur in its eastern side of rail station migrated as refugees of Bangladesh at present either from division of Bengal in 1947 or during the war of Bangladesh. They were settled either by purchasing lands or having lands from government mostly concentrated at Bankimpalli, Natagarh, Ghola areas as an effort of late Mr. Bholanath Bhattacharya of Purbapalli and late Gopal Das. Sodepur has a police outpost of its own and controlled under Khardaha and Ghola Police station.A state-of-the-art Vermi Compost Plant is Sodepur's newest pride. It is also the home of Indian National Football Team Goalkeeper Subrata Paul.

References

  1. ↑ "Base Map of Kolkata Metroploitan area". Kolkata Metroploitan Development Authority. Retrieved 2007-09-03.
  2. ↑ Falling Rain Genomics, Inc - Sodepur
  3. ↑ http://www.panihatimunicipality.in/html/communication.html
  4. ↑ http://www.panihatimunicipality.in/html/origin-name.html

Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansadeb came to Sodepur many a times during his stay at Dakhshineswar Kali Temple. MahaPravu Chaitnya came to Sodepur too. Mahatma Gandhi stayed in Sodepur for some time.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sodepur.