South Dum Dum

South Dum Dum is a city and a municipality of North 24 Parganas district in the Indianstate of West Bengal. It is close to Kolkata and also a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA).

South Dum Dum
City
South Dumdum Municipality
South Dum Dum Location in West Bengal, India Show map of West Bengal South Dum Dum South Dum Dum (India) Show map of India
Coordinates: 22.61°N 88.40°E / 22.61; 88.40
Country	India
State	West Bengal
District	North 24 Parganas
Region	Greater Kolkata
Metro Station	Dum Dum and Dum Dum Cantonment(under construction)
Government
• Type	Municipality
• Body	South Dumdum Municipality
• Chairman	Pachu Roy [1]
• Vice-Chairman	Sujit Bose[1]
Area [2]
• Total	13.54 km2 (5.23 sq mi)
Population  (2011)
• Total	403,316
• Density	30,000/km2 (77,000/sq mi)
Languages
• Official	Bengali, English
Time zone	UTC+5:30 (IST)
PIN	700028, 700030, 700048, 700055, 700065, 700074, 700077, 700089
Telephone code	+91 33
Vehicle registration	WB
Lok Sabha constituency	Dum Dum, Barasat
Vidhan Sabha constituency	Dum Dum, Bidhannagar, Rajarhat Gopalpur
Website	sddm.ind.in

It is a city on the outskirts of North Kolkata with a municipality called South Dum Dum municipality. It is well connected to the developed part of the city through railways and roads. It is very near to Shyambazar (epicenter of North Kolkata), Airport, Newtown (the IT hub of Kolkata), Esplanade (the employment hub of Kolkata and central business district) by urban railways. It is well connected to Alipore, Ballygunge, Jadavpur (the posh part of Kolkata) by suburban railways.

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During the 19th century Dum Dum area was home to the Dum Dum Arsenal, a British Royal Artillery facility.[3]

South Dumdum Municipality was established in 1870.[4]

With the partition of Bengal in 1947, “millions of refugees poured in from erstwhile East Pakistan.”[5] In the initial stages, the bulk of these refugees were non-agriculturists. A few of them made their own arrangements, but “it was squatters who made the East Bengali refugees famous or infamous.” Squatting (jabardakhal in Bengali) ranged from the forcible occupation of barracks to the collective take-over of private, government, and wasteland. By 1949, there were a total of 65 refugee colonies in the Dum Dum and Panihati zones. The squatters were in a way “self-settlers” in the absence of adequate official arrangements for rehabilitation. Within a very short time, the refugees (quite often with government/administrative support) not only found a place to stay but developed a society that included markets, schools, temples and sometimes even colleges, hospitals and recreational centres.[6][7]

Clive House on Rastraguru Avenue in Nagerbazar is mired in controversy. It is thought of as the first pucca brick and cement building in North Kolkata area and was possibly built by the Portuguese. Some say that it was the hunting lodge of an Indian prince or nobleman. What is known is that it was used by British soldiers when they first entered the country. Later, Robert Clive took the area over, renovated it, added a floor to the single-story building, and made it his country house around 1757-60. The house is located on raised ground in otherwise flat surroundings. When Clive House was excavated, a variety of artefacts were recovered, including coins, terracotta figures, sculptures, pottery and intelligence on a Portuguese fort. The articles found could be of the Sen period, or may alternatively have links with the ancient civilization unearthed earlier at Chandraketugarh. Clive House has been in the domain of the Archaeological Survey of India since 2004, but squatters inside and outside the structure have hindered restoration work.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14]

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