Kulti
Encyclopedia
Kulti is a city and a municipality
in Bardhaman district
in the India
n state
of West Bengal
.
and the Ajay
. They flow almost parallel to each other in the region – the average distance between the two rivers is around 30 km. For ages the area was heavily forested and infested with plunderers and marauders. The discovery of coal led to industrialisation of the area and most of the forests have been cleared. At the western fringe of the area the Barakar River
forms the boundary with Jharkhand
.
plant for more than a century. The plant has many historical achievements to its credit:
India’s first blast furnace was built way back in 1870, when even in the industrially developed countries there were few blast furnaces. That open top blast furnace used coal instead of charcoal for the first time, thereby introducing modern metallurgy to India. The furnace was in operation from 1875 till the fifties when it was dismantled, as the plant at Burnpur was expanded(Now the kulti plant is closed since 2003).In 2009 it was supposed to be reopened however still its on pending status.
Steel was made for the first time in India in 1904, in open hearth furnaces. The furnace lost out to the cheap steel dumped into the country from England. Steel making withered away and Kulti remained an iron making plant with numerous foundries producing a wide range of intricate castings. Large castings and large diameter cast iron pipes produced at Kulti for more than century are still being used at many places throughout the country. Technological obsolescence and vast changes in the process of steelmaking forced the closure of the foundries.
Spun pipes were produced for the first time in India by the centrifugal casting process in 1945. Even when other plants came up, Kulti continued to have a national market share of 50-70%. While technological obsolescence ate away its roots, unfair market practices finally forced it to down its shutters. In 2003, the plant was closed down with voluntary retirement to most of the workers.
In 2010 the Public Sector Undertaking of Ministry of Railways namely RITES Limited signed a joint venture agreement with the Public Sector Undertaking of Ministry of Steel namely Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) for setting up a Wagon Manufacturing Factory in Joint Venture at Kulti in the premises of IISCO.
, Kulti had a population of 290,057. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Kulti has an average literacy rate of 62%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 70%, and female literacy is 52%. In Kulti, 12% of the population is under 6 years of age.According to the census, 79% of the population in Kulti is Hindu, 19% Muslim. Other minorities such as Christian,Sikhs, Buddhist and Jain constitute the rest of the city's population http://bardhaman.nic.in/blocks/blockserch.asp?cd=m04
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
in Bardhaman district
Bardhaman District
'Bardhaman district is a district in West Bengal. The headquarter of the district is Bardhaman, though it houses other important industrial towns like Durgapur and Asansol...
in the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n state
States and territories of India
India is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...
of West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
.
Geography
Kulti is located at latitude 23°43'60N and longitude 86°50'60E at an elevation of 114 meters. The Asansol-Durgapur region is composed of undulating latterite soil. This area lies between two mighty rivers – the DamodarDamodar River
Damodar River originates near Chandwa village, Palamau district, on the Chota Nagpur Plateau in the Jharkhand state in eastern India, and flows eastward for about 592 km through the states of Jharkhand and West Bengal to the estaury of the River Hooghly...
and the Ajay
Ajay River
The Ajay River is a major river in Jharkhand and West Bengal. The word “Ajay” means “not conquered”.-Geography:The Ajay River originates on a small hill about 300 metres high, south west of Munger in Bihar. It then flows through Jharkhand and enters West Bengal at Simjuri, near Chittaranjan...
. They flow almost parallel to each other in the region – the average distance between the two rivers is around 30 km. For ages the area was heavily forested and infested with plunderers and marauders. The discovery of coal led to industrialisation of the area and most of the forests have been cleared. At the western fringe of the area the Barakar River
Barakar River
The Barakar River is the main tributary of the Damodar River in eastern India. Originating near Padma in Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand it flows for across the northern part of the Chota Nagpur Plateau, mostly in a west to east direction, before joining the Damodar near Dishergarh in Bardhaman...
forms the boundary with Jharkhand
Jharkhand
Jharkhand is a state in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar on 15 November 2000. Jharkhand shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the west, Orissa to the south, and West Bengal to the east...
.
IISCO Plant
Earlier a small village, Kulti has grown around the IISCOIISCO
IISCO Steel Plant of Steel Authority of India Limited is located at Burnpur, near Asansol. The turbulent history of the plant, starting from its pioneering days, has found it a place in industrial history....
plant for more than a century. The plant has many historical achievements to its credit:
India’s first blast furnace was built way back in 1870, when even in the industrially developed countries there were few blast furnaces. That open top blast furnace used coal instead of charcoal for the first time, thereby introducing modern metallurgy to India. The furnace was in operation from 1875 till the fifties when it was dismantled, as the plant at Burnpur was expanded(Now the kulti plant is closed since 2003).In 2009 it was supposed to be reopened however still its on pending status.
Steel was made for the first time in India in 1904, in open hearth furnaces. The furnace lost out to the cheap steel dumped into the country from England. Steel making withered away and Kulti remained an iron making plant with numerous foundries producing a wide range of intricate castings. Large castings and large diameter cast iron pipes produced at Kulti for more than century are still being used at many places throughout the country. Technological obsolescence and vast changes in the process of steelmaking forced the closure of the foundries.
Spun pipes were produced for the first time in India by the centrifugal casting process in 1945. Even when other plants came up, Kulti continued to have a national market share of 50-70%. While technological obsolescence ate away its roots, unfair market practices finally forced it to down its shutters. In 2003, the plant was closed down with voluntary retirement to most of the workers.
In 2010 the Public Sector Undertaking of Ministry of Railways namely RITES Limited signed a joint venture agreement with the Public Sector Undertaking of Ministry of Steel namely Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) for setting up a Wagon Manufacturing Factory in Joint Venture at Kulti in the premises of IISCO.
Administration
As per orders of the Delimitation Commission, 282 Kulti assembly constituency covers Kulti municipality. Kulti assembly segment is part of Asansol (Lok Sabha constituency).Ujjal Chatterjee of Trinamool Congress won the Kulti assembly seat in 2006. Maniklal Acharya of Forward Bloc had won the seat in 2001. Prior to that the seat was won by Maniklal Acharjee of Forward Bloc in 1996 and 1991, Tuhin Samanta of Congress in 1987, Madhu Banerjee of Forward Bloc in 1982 and 1977.Ramdas Banerjee of Congress won in 1972 and 1971, Dr. Taraknath Chakrabarti of Samyukta Socialist Party won in 1969, Dr. Jai Narayan Sharma of Congress in 1967 and 1962, Benarasi Prasad Jha of PSP in 1957. In 1952, independent India’s first election, Kulti was a twin member constituency and those elected were Jai Narayan Sharma and Baidyanath Mondal, both of Congress.Demographics
India censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
, Kulti had a population of 290,057. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Kulti has an average literacy rate of 62%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 70%, and female literacy is 52%. In Kulti, 12% of the population is under 6 years of age.According to the census, 79% of the population in Kulti is Hindu, 19% Muslim. Other minorities such as Christian,Sikhs, Buddhist and Jain constitute the rest of the city's population http://bardhaman.nic.in/blocks/blockserch.asp?cd=m04
Nearby places
- ChuruliaChuruliaChurulia is a village under Jamuria block station of Asansol subdivion in Bardhaman district of the state of West Bengal, India.-History:It is the birthplace of Bengali poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, and the resting place of his wife Pramila Devi. Many of the manuscripts, medallions and other belongings...
- Where the poet - Kazi Nazrul Islam was born. He is considered the national poet of Bangladesh.The village is about 31 km from Kulti, and contains a museum with his works and a memorial.
- Searsol - This village is famous for Durga Puja and Ratha Yatra, which is more than 200 years old. It about 28 km from Kulti.
- SantiniketanSantiniketanSantiniketan is a small town near Bolpur in the Birbhum district of West Bengal, India, approximately 180 kilometres north of Kolkata . It was made famous by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, whose vision became what is now a university town that attracts thousands of visitors each year...
- Visva-Bharati, founded by Rabindranath Tagore and now a central university and an institution of national importance, is located here. It is about 104 km from Kulti. - Durgapur - An industrial city 54 km to the east of Kulti and home to the Durgapur Steel Plant
- Bishnupur - The terracotta temple town and home to major art and craft is about 114 km from Kulti. The Bankura horse, symbol of Indian handicrafts is produced at Panchmura, near Vishnupur. It is also the home of the Baluchari sari, initially woven with Ramayana and Mahabharata motifs but now modernised.
- Kalyaneshwari templeKalyaneshwari templeKalyaneshwari temple at Kalyaneshwari in Asansol subdivision of Bardhaman district in the Indian state of West Bengal is located on the banks of Barakar River, about downsream from Maithon Dam of Damodar Valley Corporation. The Barakar River forms the West Bengal-Jharkhand border. It is about ...
- The temple of the Lady of Fulfilment, about 7 km from Kulti has been a place of pilgrimage, particularly for barren women, for about five centuries. It is in Maithon - Jaydev KenduliJaydev KenduliJaydev Kenduli is a village and gram panchayat in Ilambazar community development block in Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum District in the Indian state of West Bengal...
- A village on the banks of the Ajay river, about 94 km from Kulti. It is dedicated to the Sanskrit poet Jayadeva, and on Makar Sankranti hosts a mela with Bauls (religious singers with a detached philosophy and spontaneity of their own). - BakreshwarBakreshwarBakreshwar is a town in the Suri Sadar subdivision of Birbhum district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Bakreshwar Thermal Power Station of West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited is located some distance away from the town.-Etymology:...
- hot spring and temple is about 85 km from Kulti. - Joychandi Pahar - Picnic spot and centre for rock climbing training is about 15 km from Kulti.
- Maithon DamMaithon DamThe Maithon Dam is located at Maithon, 48 km from Dhanbad, in the state of Jharkhand. It is long and . high.This dam was specially designed for flood control and generates 60,000 kW of electric power. There is an underground power station, the first of its kind in the whole of South...
- A beautiful place some 12 km from Kulti. Maithon Dam and Maithon Hydro Electric Power Station are among the notable places to visit - Panchet DamPanchet DamPanchet Dam was the last of the four multi-purpose dams included in the first phase of the Damodar Valley Corporation. It was constructed across the Damodar River at Panchet in Dhanbad district in the Indian state of Jharkhand, and opened in 1959....
- 35 km. A beautiful picnic spot. - Gunjan Echological Park, Asansol - 14 km from Kulti. A social welfare project of Asansol Police located on G.T. Road at Nigha under Jamuria P.S. It was earlier an abandoned O.C.P. of Eastern Coalfields Limited and was a den of criminals and illegally-mined-coal racketeers. Somen Mitra, IPS, the then Addl S P of Asansol took the initiative to get that area under control of the Asansol police. Nearly 300 acres (1.2 km2) of land with waterbody is now an attraction for the citizens of Asansol, with a mini-zoo and a children's park. During winter, the lake supports hundreds of migratory birds. An anglers' club also exists at the Ecological Park. Asansol police is in a process to develop the area in association with ECL, SAIL-ISP and ADDA.