Dhakuria

Dhakuria (Bengali: ঢাকুরিয়া) is a locality in the city of Kolkata (previously Calcutta) in West Bengal, India. It is located in the southern part of the city and is surrounded by Ballygunge and Kasba in the north, Haltu in the east, Jadavpur/Garia in the south and the Lake Gardens and Jodhpur Park areas in the west. It has a Postal Index Number (PIN) code of 700 031.

The locality is sometimes referred to as the middle class and currently growing very well off upper-middle-class people's locality in South Kolkata. Though it is surrounded by its rich and famous areas, over the years it still remains primarily a nice upper-middle-class neighbourhood. Apart from its critical location in South Kolkata/Calcutta, it is also a place inhabited by prominent people with strong social, artistic and cultural background. The place has got homes of many celebrities and up coming artists, social workers, thinkers, entrepreneurs and visionaries who reside in Kolkata and some outside India.

The two most important landmarks that signify this locality are the Dhakuria railway station, its bus terminal and the Gariahat Road (South).

The history of Dhakuria stretches back at least two hundred years to early 1800s. Even after large scale modernization in the last decade involving demolition of older homes and buildings, there are several buildings that still exist today that predate 1900.

The rapid population growth of Dhakuria, similar to rest of the City of Kolkata, can be traced back to the late fifties & sixties, when a large influx of Hindu Refugees had started from Bangladesh. At that time the southern city limits were up to Ballygunge Lake areas (now known as Golpark).

The areas beyond the Eastern railway tracks at Golpark started developing with large numbers of people building up their homes there. The area was very different from the neighbouring Ballygunge. While Ballygunge dotted the homes of the rich, wide tree lined roads (at Golpark, Southern Avenue), Dhakuria was marked with comparatively narrow lanes and bylanes. The nomenclature of most of the sub localities of this area bear the mark of age old family dominances viz. Roypara, Bannerjeepara, Daspara, Ghoshpara, Mukherjeepara, Biswaspara, Naskarpara etc. The Pakrashi's from Pabna' Bangladesh, were amongst the first few families who came and started residing here in the most famous locality called Babu Bagan. The Dhakuria Kalibari was founded by the Pakrashi family only.

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Wikipedia