LUXURY HOTELS IN KOLKATA Taj Bengal The Oberoi Grand

Calcutta retains much of the splendour of yesteryears, with a presence that is at once regal, imposing and memorable, a city worthy of admiration and love.

Welcome to Job Charnock's 'chance-directed, chance-erected city, Lapierre's City of Joy'. Calcutta was born in August 1690, following the midday halt of Job Charnock, Chief of the British East India Company, on the eastern banks of the River Hooghly, overlooking the bustling village of Sutanati. The city grew around Sutanati and the adjoining villages of Govindapur and Kalikata (site of the famous Kali Temple ), from which is derived its present name.

Charnock's halt ws, however, no accident. Fifty years earlier, Mughal Emperor Shah Jehan had granted a concession of free trade in Bengal to an English surgeon, Gabriel Boughton, as fee for effecting a royal cure.

Over the next 250 years, Calcutta grew into the leading city east of Suez, and the second city of the British Empire. Inextricably interwoven into its history are River Hooghly and the port (Kidderpore Docks), both witness to the eventful and fast changing mulieu of the city. Calcutta's growth was further enhanced by a hinterland rich in coal, iron ore and mineral deposits, and as the focal point for the tea, jute and engineering industries.

Today, Calcutta is India's largest metropolis, with a population in excess of 11 million.