Why in the down trodden city of **Calcutta**..???

> Soon after independence and in the early 50s Calcutta was one of the best
> cities of India and also considered as the commercial capital of our country
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> Those days, Calcutta was still quite a regal, sophisticated, beautiful
> and a clean city, as the British had left it, with some very imposing and
> fine buildings such as the Calcutta High Court, Great Eastern Hotel,
> buildings in Dalhousie Square incl. Writers Building, Grindlays Bank,
> Imperial Bank ( now known as State Bank of India), the Statesman Office ,
> the Grand Hotel in Chowringhee etc etc., not forgetting the beautiful
> Victoria Memorial surrounded by its lovely gardens and the St. Pauls
> Cathredal.
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> Calcutta was also famous for its beautifully maintained Maidan, with
> hundreds of trees and dotted with sports clubs?one could even play golf on
> the Maidan.
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> Alipore, a very green suburb still has its beautiful Horticultural
> Gardens , well known for its annual flower show in winter. South Calcutta
> was famous for its lake surrounded by trees and Park Circus its poor cousin,
> also had a fairly decent ? park? where we apprentices from Gorachand
> Road enjoyed our evening walks.
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> North Calcutta had the very popular Star Theatre, the Mirror Palace ,
> Rajbari and a little beyond Bentick St was the very fascinating China Town.
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> Those days the city had some very posh hotels and restaurants, like the
> famous Great Eastern Hotel and the Grand with its very popular restaurant
> the ?Scheherazade? and its ballroom at the ?Princes?. Other very popular restaurants
> were Firpos, Flurys, Trincas and Kwality and a very good Chinese
> restaurant on Park St. which I think was named Peiping. Our favorite used
> to be the very reasonably priced ?Magnolia? on Park St with Patricia singing
> away as well as ?Mocambo? on Free School St. with the famous and very
> popular Pam Crain at the mike
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> Besides the very popular hotels and restaurants Calcutta was also well
> known for its club life . The posh clubs being?Bengal Club, Tollygunge Club,
> Royal Golf Club, the famous Calcutta Cricket and Football Club which claims
> to be the second oldest sports club in the world, the Saturday Club, the
> Royal Turf Club, Calcutta Rowing Club, the Dalhousie Institute ( very
> popular with the Anglo Indians ) and of course the various football clubs
> such as Mohan Bagan, East Bengal, Mohd Sporting, and others who had their
> club houses on the Maidan
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> In 40s and 50s Calcutta was the commercial capital of India and well known
> companies such as Duncans, Shaw Wallace, Andrew Yule, Imperial Tobacco, now
> known as India Tobacco Co (ITC) , Metal Box, Imperial Chemical Industries
> (ICI), Shalimar Paints, J.Thomas, Macneil & Barry, Mckinnon & Mckenzie,
> Jessop, Kilburn, Dunlop, the Birla group, and many more, besides a whole
> lot of tea companies had their head offices in Calcutta
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> The city transportation system was also quite good in our time and the
> Calcutta Tramways Co had a fairly efficient service. We used to hop onto
> a tram at Park Circus and reach Esplanade in about 20 minutes --- the
> fare 10 paise (old currency )
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> Calcutta was also the largest and the busiest port in India, right up to
> the 70s, and at times there used to be over a hundred ships in port with
> every berth in the King Georges Dock (now known as Netaji Subhash Dock),
> Kidderpore Dock, river jetties and buoys occupied and at times double banked
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> Maximum number of ships used to be repaired at Calcutta, in fact even some
> foreign passenger and cargo ships used to specially come to Calcutta for dry
> docking and be laid up for repairs / survey just like these days we send
> our ships to Colombo, Dubai, Singapore and China for heavy repairs and
> dry docking . To cater to the ship repair business there were some very well
> equipped marine repair workshops such as Garden Reach Workshops, IGNR later
> known as the CIWTC Rajabagan Dockyard, Shalimar Works, Hoogly Docking and
> last but not the least the Calcutta Port Trust workshops which catered to
> its large fleet of port craft and dredgers. All these marine workshops were
> well known for their highly skilled manpower.
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> In other words, besides being the commercial capital, Calcutta was also the
> shipping capital of India. It was obvious that Calcutta with its excellent
> ship repair facilities was ideally suited for training of marine engineers,
> more so since the deck cadets were being trained on the Dufferin at
> Bombay, and therefore setting up the DMET at Calcutta was fully justified
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> *The decline of **Calcutta**?..*
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> It is indeed very unfortunate that the shipping scene has drastically
> changed as far as Calcutta is concerned. The port was very busy right up to
> the mid 70s but started deteriorating, thanks to frequent strikes / labour
> problems, and its inability to cater to deep draft ships. The prevailing
> political situation in West Bengal, Naxalite activities, labour
> problems, strikes, ?gheraoes?, and the huge shortage of electric power,
> resulting in frequent load shedding was the beginning of the end.
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> Companies started shifting their operations out of Calcutta and some just
> folded up. Trade and commerce at Calcutta suffered
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> As for the city of Calcutta and its ?down trodden ? condition, you will be
> surprised to know that up to the late 40s, the streets of the then
> Calcutta were hosed down early in the morning at about 5AM every day by
> the staff of the Calcutta Municipality ! (If you do not believe me, please
> ask your parents / grand parents re the same). The rot started with the
> influx of refugees from the then East Pakistan, living on the streets in the
> city with no proper rehabilitation (unlike the refugees from West
> Pakistan ) , down turn in the state economy, and due to the rampant corruption,
> indiscipline and breakdown of civic services of the notorious
> Municipality of Calcutta
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> The ruling Left Front continued to harbor anti private industry policies
> for 30 years. By the time they realized the damage caused to West Bengal?s
> economy and tried to attract private investment, the Trinamool had picked up
> the baton , and now its back to square one!
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