The History Of
Beliaghata Canal




Compiled By:
Kaustuv Nandi [CSE/2005/018]
Kuntal Kuilaya [CSE/2005/027]
Abhijit Chowdhury [CSE/2005/025]
Debasish Chowdhury [CSE/2005/009]

Acknowledgements

It is a pleasure to acknowledge the assistance received from several individuals and organizations during the preparation of this project report. We are greatly indebted to Dr. P.K.Sen for his valuable helps during this project. We are very much grateful to Mr. Gautam Mukherjee, Mr.Jayanta Majumdar, Mr. Gautam Ghosh, Mr. Kalyan Nandi for giving us old and valuable documents and books. We, would also like to thank I & W Directorate ,Government of West Bengal ,Unnayan Bhawan Library, State Central Library for their kind assistance.
We would also like to thank our friend Mahakarsha Bhattacharya and Sourav Dutta for their valuable help during the preparation of this project.
For presentation and designs we are grateful to Gutenberg Bible and National Archives ,USA.





References

v Kolikata Darpan—by Radharaman Mitra.
v Kolikata Sekalar O Ekaler – by Harisadhan Mukhopadhaya
v 24 Paragana O Kolikata (Bhougolik Kahini)
—Dr.Sivaprasad Chattopadhaya.
v Reports of I & W Department, Govt. of West Bengal.
v A history of Calcutta’s streets—P.Thankappan Nair.
v Echoes from Old Calcutta—S. Dasgupta
v Naya Prokash—C.M.D.A.State Library.
v Ekok Matra—A Little Magazine.
v Bangalar Etihas—Rakhal Das Bandopadhyay.
v Kali-Koli-Kolikata—Dr. Anil Biswas.













Prologue

Water is the main source of living. Growth of civilization depends on the availability of quantum of water. Sweet water is available in river, canal, pond etc. The canal means natural or artificial bed of running water wider than strait. The canal is normally excavated for having a flowing water course for the purpose of inland navigation, irrigation, drinking etc. the purpose of constructing canal is to bring the water source direct to every corner of society.
Beliaghata canal is a natural water course. It was a distributary, came out of the river Bhagirathi in the ancient period on account of geological reasons. Since then it had been flowing eastward and met with the eastern lake channel near Dhappa and finally emerged with the river Bidhyadhari.


Geographical Origin
About 5000 years ago there was no Gangetic delta.The Ganges seems to meet the sea near Raj Mahal. After deposition of soils for thousand of years ,the river Ganges form the worlds biggest delta. During formation of this delta Ganges is divided in two major parts –Bhagirathi and Padma.This rivers also divided many parts and formed the delta gradually.In the southern part of this delta, one stream came out of Bhagirathi and ,after flowing eastward met the salt water lake .This creek is shown in many old maps which now is known as Beliaghata Canal.In the earlier times Bhagirathi would flow through the stream “Adi Ganga” and during that period the creeks came out of Ganges were very wide, huge water carrier and used for transportation. Between twelfth and sixteenth century a neo-tectonic movement occurred in the Gangetic delta and the main stream of Ganges shifted to Padma also the main stream of Bhagirathi took a new route to Bay of Bengal leaving the “Adi Ganga ”route. Since then the depth and width of these creeks have been gradually decreasing due to shortage of water and sedimentation of soil. Now a days this has become a narrow drainage canal.

Walking Back in the History

To find the history of the Beliaghata Canal , we walked back along the path of time and found the oldest records of this creek.
In the twelfth century ,during the period of Ballal Sen ,we can find the location of this creek, which started from Bhagirathi and ended in the salt water lake. Two sides of this creek were full of forests and few small villages at that time.
The confluence of the creek with Bhagirathi was near the opposite of famous “Tamralipta” port. This port was a major centre of trade with outer India, in the ancient period. The coins of Roman and Gupta dynasty, found in the archeological excavation give evidence to this.
During that period, a triangular land surrounded by Bhagirathi ,Adi Ganga and this creek with few other streams, was known as “Kali Khetra”.Here the famous temple of goddess Kali was situated .We also find the name of Kolikata and various creeks in the “Manasha Mangal” by Mukundaram.
We came to know from the ancient script “Digvijayprakash” that in the fourteenth century this place was marked as a holy land and named as “Kilkilla bhumi“.
In the sixteenth century this place of south Bengal was ruled by “Twelve bhowmiks” and after that it witnessed the fight between Mughals and Pathans.We do not find any recorded history of this creek during that period.In the seventeeth century the “Sabarna Roy Chaudhurys”became the zaminders of three villages Sutanuti, Govindapur and Kolikata .At that time this creek traverse through a village Govindapur and met the salt water lake situated at the east of the village. This creek was then known as “Govindapur creek”. The early British maps of that time clarify the position of the creek. It was in used as inter Bengal transportation channel.
In the old maps of Van Den Brooke and in the books of Hobson Jobson , we can find a river of Bengal named as Rogue’s river or devil’s river .The Portuguese ,Dutch and Mog pirates and French merchants came to Bengal via Sundarbans and this river. According to Dr. Asit Kr. Sen this river is now known as Beliaghata Canal. Because of less evidence and the maps of some British sailors the historian Radharaman Mitra opposes with Dr. Sen’s views.










In the Early British Settlement

In the 24th August of 1690 Job Charnok came to Kolikata and the British period in Bengal starts.It was he who first started the trade for the East India Company in kolikata. The British gadget of early 18th century says that a small creek passed by the north of Dharmatala flowing from Chandpal ghat to Beliaghata, Salt water lake or Dhapa. This creek flew over Hasting street,Bentinct street and Wellington square. During that period ,a branch of the river Bidhyadhari flew through the Salt water lake. This river Bidhyadhari met the river Matla and finally ended in the Bay of Bengal. This channel was then widely used, as a means of transport. The creek row and the canal street still carries the memory of this creek. As this creek passed through Etly (pronounced Entally by the British), it was named as Entally canal. The two sides of this canal was filled with dense forest at that time. The area where the channel met the salt water lake was known as Baliaghat,and according to this, it is also called Beliaghata Canal.
In the early 18th century, many large vessels traversed through this channel. In 11th Sept. 1737, a devastating storm and earthquake affected very much. On that day a big ship was destroyed in this cannel .This place was known after this incident as Dingibhanga.
In the 1742, Maratha warriors attacked Kolkata. These Maratha warriors were called “The Bargis”. They destroyed properties of Bengal and took a heavy toll of human lives. To save Kolkata, the Britishes proposed Nawab Alibordi Khan to construct a circular canal around Kolkata. This canal was known as “Maharatta Ditch”. It was a circular canal started from Chitpur creek and ended in beliaghata canal. The other side of Kolkata was covered by Bhagirathi. This ditch played a major role to save Kolkata from the Bargi attack.
The East India Company established the Fort William in the bank of river Bhagirathi and to the west of the Entally canal. In 1756, Shirajdaulla attacked Kolkata. The Maratha ditch and the Entally canal was a major barrier for the Nawab’s army to capture the Fort William. The British documents say that in the confluence of Bhagirathi and this canal near the Hestings Street, there was an earthen bunker. This bunker had a few cannons to stop the enemies coming through Bhagirathi.
After the battle of Palasy in 1757, the rule of East India Company started at Kolkata. This caused major developments of Kolkata.




During The Development Of Kolkata

In the early 18th century, British East India Company started to develop Kolkata as the capital of India. From that time, an immense development of Kolkata took place. During this period the company formed a “Lottery Committee” to design the Metropolitan of Kolkata. This committee planned to cover up the “Maharatta Ditch”. The Maharatta Ditch was covered up from Chitpur to Beliaghata canal within 1800. While covering up the Maharatta Ditch a portion of the beliaghata canal from Hastings street to Entally was covered up due to construction of roads and buildings. This is how the beliaghata canal lost its connection from Bhagirathi. A road was constructed parallel to the former Maharatta Ditch enclosing Kolkata and this road was known as the “Circular Road”.
Near about 1801, due to deposition of soil the depth of Beliaghata canal decreased very much. In 1810, this canal was fully reformed for the navigation purpose. After that the transportation again started via the Bidhyadhari river and beliaghata canal.
Mojor William Tolly proposed the company to excavate and repair the canals for water transportation within Kolkata. According to his plan the Tolly canal, Chitpur canal and the beliaghata canal was repaired.
In 1824, Tiretta and Mojor Shalch proposed to excavate a new canal parallel to the original route of Maharatta Ditch for water navigation purpose. This proposed canal started from Chitpur and ended in the beliaghata canal near Sealdah. This excavation started in 1829 and finished in 1833. Thereafter, the Circular canal and the beliaghata canal played a major role in inter –bengal transportation. In 1836 the toll tax was first started over Circular and Beliaghata canal. In 1858 another canal was excavated, which started at from Circular canal near Belgachia and ended in beliaghata canal near Dhapa.
After formation of the Circular Canal the main stream of beliaghata canal, flew through Circular canal. This caused in the major decrease of the depth the beliaghata canal. In 1861 the portion of beliaghata canal from Entally road to Palmer bridge pumping station was covered up due to construction of rail line and underground drainage system. Finally the British government covered this canal upto Chunapatti for the construction of offices and buildings.
On the two banks of the canal major developments took place in the 19th century. From the “Calcutta gadget”of 1821 we came to know that the places like Dharmatolla and Wellington street was later developed on this soil. In 1831, the famous Rashmoni bazaar started in the bank of beliaghata canal. On that time, it was a major centre of trade in Bengal. The famous Sealdah station, was also constructed besides this canal. In the early 20th century, the population increased slowly on the two banks of this canal and a few small scale industry was also formed.
After Independence
After Independence, a rapid increase in the population took place in and around Kolkata. Many slum areas mainly spread around the banks of the beliaghata canal. After independence, the navigation process nearly closed through this canal. This canal was then started to be used as a drainage canal. During this period the importance of this canals greatly reduced and very few reformation took place after that. In 1960, the irrigation planned to cover up the beliaghata canal, but it was not executed.
In the decade of 70’s the Govt. of West Bengal planned to fill up the Salt water lake to form a separate city outside Kolkata. Due to the development of Salt lake city, the beliaghata canal lost its connection with the river Bidhyadhari and the Salt water lake.
After the formation of Eastern Metropoliton Bypass the route of the beliaghata canal had slightly changed. The recent reports of the Irrigation and Waterways Directorate says that the Circular Beliaghata canal after crossing the E.M.Bypass near Dhapa lock pumping station is known as Eastern drainage canal and outfalls in Kestopur canal at a distance of six km. from Ultadanga..Now the total length of the circular canal and the beliaghata canal is known as the circular beliaghata canal. This canal drains the areas of Chitpur, Cossipore, Bagbazar, Ultadanga, Maniktala, Salt lake and Beliaghata.
Throughout the entire length of Circular beliaghata canal from Chitpur lock up to Dhapa end there are number of road and railway bridges,namely Chipur bridge, barrackpur bridge, R.G.Kar bridge, Aurobindo Setu, Maniktala bridge, Sealdah railway bridge, Beliaghata bridge, K.M.D.A bridge, Kakurgachi railway bridge, Rashmoni bazaar bridge, Dhappa bridge on E.M. Bypass. There is also a wooden bridge at Chingrighatta constructed and maintained by I & W department.
During the time of the independence war of Bangladesh, the main refugee camp was formed beside this beliaghata canal. In the 80th and 90th decade a lot of small scale Iron Industries were started in the bank of the canal. The last reformation of this canal was done in 2002.The Government college of Leather Technology was also founded beside the beliaghata canal which is now known as “RCC Institution of Information Technology”.
The West Bengal Infrastructure Development Corporation has decided to set up a Garment Park in the Canal South Road on the side of beliaghata canal. The Government has also planned to construct a double lane road bridge over beliaghata canal.




Epilogue
Now a days the beliaghata canal is only a drainage canal but once upon a time it was a major creek of inter –bengal transportation. It witnessed many historical facts like Job Charnock’s coming to Kolkata , Bargi attack, Siraj daula’s attack devepment during the british rule etc.
All the canals including Beliaghata canal in and around Kolkata are not utilized in a planned manner. Almost all the canal have lost their character by way of transforming them into drainage canal. Due to stagnation , water in these canals are absolutely polluted and have become active source of harmful diseases. Due to lack of proper maintenance, all the canals have become out of use. Kolkata is a thickly populated city. If the canals are properly maintained, these water courses can be utilized for navigation purpose and as a result, dependence on road navigation may be minimized to a great extent. Only good wishes, followed by proper planning is the remedy.