Buses, trams, cars, boats, horses and fish all have gone through it. The banks, the trunk even the pavement and the drain have been built up on the both side of it . Many movements, revolutions and accidents are en-marked its history . This wonderful historical story....
The History of a Road
Three villages are becoming a business center with the river on the west, the jungle on the south. after a lot of trouble, a group of English merchants have been allowed to trade here, a remote place about 120 miles south of the capital. But nothing to worry because their company name is East India Company and they are capable to convert a remote village to a city. Here the villagers are so much loyal to them and there is a potential to growth the market. But there are two obstacle, firstly the relation between them and the 'Nawab', the ruler of Bengal is not good.It is not unknown to the experienced merchants of the East India Company that it is impossible to do business without the grace of ruler. As a result, they were desperate to please the Nawab, there was nothing left from the gift, diplomacy, infidelity and conspiracy. But the other problem is the more dire, the attacks of banditsv. Beginning in 1741, the bandits supported by Maratha Empire start to attack , their garments name is Bargis. They used to attack every year regularly and plundered the wealth. Kolkata's economy began to collapse for this attack. Diplomacy can not be suitable for the bandits. Although Kolkata has its own stronghold "Fort William" and armed security personnel, it is nothing to deal with the Bargis supported by a foreign empire. At the begining, the merchants of the East India Company looked for Nawab's help, but such a fate that Nawab was also failed to resist these barbarians. The East India Company's traders knows that the weakness of the government is sometimes a great fortune to grow a business and so it becomes very easy to get more benefits from the weak Nawab. But the Bargis have to be controlled. With the consent of the Nawab, East India Company formed its own army to suppress these Bargis. But they are East India Company, they are more comfortable on tactics than force. So they begin the task of securing Kolkata. The west side of Kolkata is protected by river and Chitpur creek to the north. Open sides are found only in the jungle of the south and east of the city, attacks are also occurring in the east. The work of securing the rest of the two sides necessarily began by cutting a wide ditch, in 1742, starting from the Chitpur creek along the eastern side and the southern side and ending to the river was cut into a wide stream. At that time no one can understand that this canal itself will become a history one day.
This ditch was born to save from the Maratha attacks, so from the starting, it was named "Maratha Ditch". But it's better to call it a 'canal'. After 1752, the power of Bargis started to decline and the English forces became much stronger. The English East India Company's trade volume has grown considerably and Kolkata has also made its debut as a city. This canal began to be used for transport when the bargi fears were overcome. Boats were started for transport within the city and for trade in nearby towns. Various private boats, even boats operated by the English East India Company, started transporting passengers and goods. This canal became the main route of transport to Kolkata.
Although the canal protected Kolkata from the invasion of the Maratha bargis, but it could not from the new Nawab. In 1956, Nawab Siraj-ud-daula attacked Kolkata with about thirty thousand soldiers and crossed the canal and started the battle of Laldighi. The British were defeated and Kolkata was taken over by him. Everyone knows the history after that. After the Battle of Plassy, the importance of Kolkata was suddenly increased. The income of the English East India Company continued to grow at an exponential rate, and Kolkata began to transform from city to metropolis. It was decided to extinguish the canal as the need for the canal was decreasing and in 1799 it was extinguished.
Although the existence of the canal is lost, its importance has not diminished so much, but it is growing more than ever. Instead of a wide canal, a wide road is constructed, anyone can say a highway instead of a waterway.At that time, Ballygunge, Maniktala, Rajabazar, Bagbazar are the suburbs and this road was the eastern bypass. Gradually the numbers of cars in this road increased and colonies were established on the both sides.Then this route was no longer a bypass, it became the main street of the city. The road was named Circular Road, the northern part is Upper Circular Road and the southern part is named Lower Circular Road. The road is almost 10 km in length from Shyamabazar to Hastings and looked like reversed 'L'. Gradually, the school, government offices, hospitals, housing, shops and much more were set up along this path. In this way, the number of people also increased.
A tram depot was built at the intersection of Upper Circular Road and Lower Circular Road in 1873, named Sealdah. From this Sealdah, the first horse-drawn tram began to run about 4 km to the Armenian Ghats. In 1878, the Sealdah tram depot was removed to Rajabazar and a railway station was opened at Sealdah. The busyness of the circular road has been increased since the starting of Sealdah railway station. On this road, the tramlines were installed and Bus route was introduced.
Though the rhythm of this road is changed with time, the busyness never decreases, or the busyness might be the rhythm of this road.
Although the canal protected Kolkata from the invasion of the Maratha bargis, but it could not from the new Nawab. In 1956, Nawab Siraj-ud-daula attacked Kolkata with about thirty thousand soldiers and crossed the canal and started the battle of Laldighi. The British were defeated and Kolkata was taken over by him. Everyone knows the history after that. After the Battle of Plassy, the importance of Kolkata was suddenly increased. The income of the English East India Company continued to grow at an exponential rate, and Kolkata began to transform from city to metropolis. It was decided to extinguish the canal as the need for the canal was decreasing and in 1799 it was extinguished.
Although the existence of the canal is lost, its importance has not diminished so much, but it is growing more than ever. Instead of a wide canal, a wide road is constructed, anyone can say a highway instead of a waterway.At that time, Ballygunge, Maniktala, Rajabazar, Bagbazar are the suburbs and this road was the eastern bypass. Gradually the numbers of cars in this road increased and colonies were established on the both sides.Then this route was no longer a bypass, it became the main street of the city. The road was named Circular Road, the northern part is Upper Circular Road and the southern part is named Lower Circular Road. The road is almost 10 km in length from Shyamabazar to Hastings and looked like reversed 'L'. Gradually, the school, government offices, hospitals, housing, shops and much more were set up along this path. In this way, the number of people also increased.
A tram depot was built at the intersection of Upper Circular Road and Lower Circular Road in 1873, named Sealdah. From this Sealdah, the first horse-drawn tram began to run about 4 km to the Armenian Ghats. In 1878, the Sealdah tram depot was removed to Rajabazar and a railway station was opened at Sealdah. The busyness of the circular road has been increased since the starting of Sealdah railway station. On this road, the tramlines were installed and Bus route was introduced.
Though the rhythm of this road is changed with time, the busyness never decreases, or the busyness might be the rhythm of this road.
But the circular road also stoped one day. At the time of World War II, Japanese troops occupied upto Burma from the British and moved faster towards Kolkata. In 1943, trenches ware made so that people could take shelter while the Japanese starts air strike. In 1946 riot, so many incidents were happened.
After the liberation of India, the history of this road remains the same, witnessing many movements and blockades. The government decided to change the name of the road. Upper Circular Road was named Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road and Lower Circular Road was named Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Road. Even today, this road retains its status as the busiest road in Kolkata. On this road many establishment is situated like Victoria Memorial, Rabindra Sadan, Nandan, PG Hospital, AJC Bose College, Sealdah Station, many schools and others including expensive hotels.
The second longest flyover in Kolkata is about 3 km long, name A.J.C. Bose Flyover, passes over Jagadish Chandra Bose Road. It is difficult to find any people who have come to Kolkata, but did not go to Jagadish Chandra Bose Road or Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road. Everyone who lives in Kolkata or its suburbs knows the names of these two roads, but I do not know how many of them knows the history of these two roads.
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