East India · West Bengal
Maheshtala, West Bengal
About Maheshtala
- Riverside
Where it is
Maheshtala is a city in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, on the east bank of the Hooghly River just south-west of Kolkata, within the Kolkata metropolitan area along the Budge Budge Trunk Road.
History
Maheshtala grew on Kolkata's southern fringe alongside riverside industry and became a municipality in 1993. Its neighbourhood of Batanagar was built in the 1930s by the Czechoslovak shoe company Bata as a factory town, and shoe-making remains a cottage industry in the homes around it.
People
Most people speak Bengali, with Hindi and Urdu also heard. Many families work in small shoe and leather workshops or commute into Kolkata, and Durga Puja and Kali Puja are the big festivals.
Known for
- Batanagar, the Bata factory town
- Shoe-making workshops around Batanagar
- Riverside industry on the Hooghly
We haven't written a guide for this place yet — you can still plan a trip here.