Ballygunge - History and Development

History and Development

The term bâli means sand and gônjo marketplace or trading center. It is possible that while the British were digging the Mahratta Ditch as a precautionary measure to fortify the city against invading Maratha warriors, the sand and mud that was dug up used to be piled up in the area currently known as Ballygunge.

The locality started developing with the expansion of Kolkata city beyond the Mahratta Ditch (later the Upper and Lower Circular Roads and now the A.P.C.Road and A.J.C.Bose Road respectively), in the early and mid-20th century. Soon this locality became one of the addresses to have in town, with beautifully laid out areas like Gurusaday Dutta Road, Ballygunge Park, Queens Park, Sunny Park, Hindustan Park, Merlin Park, Ballygunge Circular Road, Ashutosh Chowdhury Avenue, Mayfair Road, Mandeville Gardens. Stately bungalows came up on both sides of the tree-lined avenues and with time, magnificent high rise apartments dotted the skylines. However, the truly aristocratic families continued to have their family homes in North Calcutta. This southern extension of the city housed many of the "newly rich". Kasba was a sprawling slum and in the time between the two world wars many middle-class families settled in family homes that were large enough to be sectioned out as flats for rental. Later highrise flats were built in the Kasba area and other parts of Ballygunge.

The Tagore Estate used to have large holdings in the area. Suren Tagore's(Satyendra Nath Tagore ICS's son) house on Gurusaday Dutt Road was later bought by the Birlas, and the house has now become The Birla Industrial & Technological Museum. Others like Sir K G Gupta ICS, Gurusaday Dutt ICS(Founder of the Bratachari Movement - after whom the road was later named), K.K. Birla, B.M. Birla, Raja Anandilal Poddar, H L Somany and Nawab Farooqui also lived on Gurusaday Road. The Maharajah of Tripura built their Calcutta town house on Ballygunge Circular Road. Pramathesh Barua, the famous Bengali film personality, who was the Maharaja of Gouripur(Assam), also lived on Ballygunge Circular Road (now named Pramathesh Barua Sarani). So did the Maharajas of Santosh, Brajendrakishore Raychaudhuri, the zamindar of Gouripore (Bengal), who donated money to the National Council, which later became Jadavpur University, Sir S M Bose, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first Education Minister of India, Abhay Charan Banerjee (Sir R N Mukherjee's eldest son-in-law), L N Thapar, the industrialist, Suchitra Sen, the actress (she still does live there), Sita and Sachin Chaudhuri, the Finance Minister of India, and the Khaitans of Khaitan & Co, Solicitors. Leila Seth lived with her family on Ballygunge Circular Road. "Maharajah" of Nadia, at present Saumish Chandra Roy of Nadia, has a house on 2, Bright Street. A cantonment area grew between Ballygunge Circular Road and Gurusaday Road, along with several noted colleges and schools. The "Lakes" developed in the inter war years and situated between the Sealdaha - Budge Budge railway tracks and Southern Avenue (Meghnad Saha Sarani)on the North and South and Rabindra Sarobar Stadium and Gol Park on the East and West is a beautiful relaxing place to be in and unwind oneself. The areas near the lakes on its North came to be known as the Rai Sahib-Rai Bahadur's colony because of the number of senior civil servants (bearing those titles) who retired and settled there. Other areas like the serpentine lanes of Fern Road, Kankulia Road(stretches later came to be known as Ballygunj Terrace), Garcha (parts later renamed as Dover Terrace), Motilal Nehru Road, Ballygunge Place East are also a part of Ballygunge.

Although the area reflects the city's problems of over-crowding and pollution, Ballygunge remains a highly sought after residential area. People are prepared to pay fancy prices to own a place there defying economic logic. However, the removal of the "islands" around the tram tracks on Rashbehari Avenue and its trees has reduced its beauty somewhat.

The official residence of the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court(formerly the residence of Justice Kamal Chandra Chunder), is in Ballygunge and the area has provided state Chief Ministers and Union Cabinet Ministers for the last four decades. The traditional burra sahibs - the senior company executives and bureaucrats - continue to be housed in the locality. The Consulates of Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Myanmar, Norway, Thailand and Turkey are located in Ballygunge as also residences of Honorary Consul General of Chile, Japan, Sri Lanka and Australia trade commission office. The "Indo German Chamber of Commerce" and The Calcutta Cricket and Football Club is on Gurusaday Dutta Road.

As a result, Ballygunge is today one of the most exclusive & posh locales of Kolkata, with land prices among the highest in the city. Since the 1970s colonial bungalows and detached houses have been giving place to multi-storied flats. In the seventies and eighties these were largely "co-operative" initiatives for the Bengali middle class ("Saptaparni", "Parijaat", "Ananda", "Naba Kailash", "Meghamallar" etc.); during the '90s, the developments became increasingly more swank as marble clad high rises were targeted at Calcutta's business communities; and finally the new millennium has seen plush condominiums with swimming pools and other star facilities for the seriously affluent. Recent road development undertaken at the Posh Ballygunge side, Rashbehari-Deshapriya park and Gariahat have improved the infrastructure in the Ballygunge area, although traffic snarls are still quite common along major arteries like Rash Behari Avenue, Gariahat Road, Ashutosh Chowdhury Avenue and Syed Amir Ali Avenue during peak hours.