Delineation and Dynamics of Central Business District of the City of Kolkata, West Bengal, India: A Geographical Analysis

The commercial core of a city acts as the centre of gravity for all economic functions. The core of the then Calcutta was a vibrant trading centre at the initial stages of its formation in the British period in the eighteenth century. With time, this site started exhibiting a rapid pace of urbanization. There was a traditional 'bazaar town' between the European and native counterparts. This laid the earliest foundation of the central business core of the city. This part of the town was more cosmopolitan, with traders from different parts of the country at the beginning. Over time, the natural growth process reshaped this focal point into a busy CBD with diverse functional touches. The premises density rose, and so did the population growth. The purpose of the study is to portray the dynamic nature and also to display the spatial expansion of the commercial core of Kolkata in the light of ideal CBDs of other prominent metropolises of India as well as the world. Finally, the studies have revealed that although the central business district of this old giant colonial city displays the necessary elements of an ideal metropolis, it remains dwarfed and more or less static. Such a stagnating nature of the central business core may lead to an ambiguous future unless some rational planning strategies are undertaken.