Sodepur

Sodepur (Bengali: সোদপুর) is a small town located about 15 km from Kolkata, which is one of the major Indian cities. Sodepur is a part of the Panihati Municipality under Barrackpore sub-division and North 24 Parganas district of the state of West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority.[1]
The major landmark of modern Sodepur is the shopping complex named Sriniketan, and the Peerless Nagar Housing Complex, Lokasanskriti Bhawan, Rathindra Cinema hall. Perpendicular to this road is the Sodepur Station Road, which is Sodepur's major shopping area. This road is lined with shops in both sides selling various items. The Sodepur suburban railway station lies on the right of this road. The Health-CheckUp System for people of Sodepur consists of private Nursing Homes and private practitioners apart from one State General Hospital.The posh area of Sodepur is H.B.Town,and Amarabati area which are both very much near to the Railway Station, a very natural town though costly .
Website : http://www.sodepurbazar.com/
Contents [hide]
1 Geography
2 Transport
3 Education
4 Economy
5 History
6 References
7 External links
[edit]Geography

Sodepur is located at 22.71°N 88.39°E[2]. It has an average elevation of 15 m (49 ft).
[edit]Transport

From Shyambazar 5 pt. Crossing, one can go straight through the Barrackpore Trunk Road BT Road until one reaches Sodepur Petrol Pump Bus Stop. Bus Routes avilable are Sodepur-Babughat Mini Bus, New Barrackpore-Babughat Mini Bus, 214, 78/1, Moshishpota-Garia Stn WBSTC. and many more...
From the Kolkata Airport,you can reach Sodepur via the Sodepur Road which starts from Madhyamgram four point crossing(Chowrasta)here and the only bus service is 78E, You can avail AutoRickshaw serices also. From Dunlop (or from Barahanagar Road Railway Station) you can avail any of the buses coming from Shyambazar to reach Sodepur. Recently a bus service i.e DN-46 has been started from Sodepur to Sec-5, SaltLake via Dakshineswar(Belgharia Expressway).
It is easier to reach Sodepur along Railroad. All the suburban trains of Eastern Railways from Main Section of Sealdah Station go via Sodepur and most of those stop here. It takes about 30 mins to reach Sodepur from Sealdah.
Another way is to catch underground railway (Metro Rail) and reach DumDum Station and from there via a train to Sodepur, which will take about 15 mins to reach.
[edit]Education

The oldest school at Sodepur is Sodepur High School (H.S.). It was established in 1853. This school is one of the oldest in West Bengal. The other old schools here are Chandrachur Vidyapith (Boys, Girls and Primary), Desbandhu Sikshyatan, St. Xavier's Institution, Buniadi School, National Model School, Park Institution and others. Ramakrishna Vivekananda Mission, Barrackpur has started a new english medium school at ashram road pallishree.In this area St. Xavier's Institution offers both English (under ICSE/ISC) and Bengali medium under (WBBSE). Panihati College which contributed much in education system of the locality and also many other distance education study centers namely Media Infotech which offers Graduate and Master Degree Courses from Sikkim Manipal University.
[edit]Economy

Most of the people of Sodepur are service personnel either in Government sector, semi- government sector or in private sectors. There are many shops where some of the people are employed. Though educational level of sodepur is high (about > 80% literate at graduate or Secondary level standard) the unemployment rate is also high as there are no industries there. EMCO(India) based in Sodepur manufactured Shutter Vibrators, Grinders, Step Down Transformers and distributed all over India. There are some well-established businessman and industrialists like Mr.Aich ,Mr.De ,Mr.Moitra, Mr.Phallan, Mr.Pal, etc. They also help the society to be more developed by providing employments and un-specified donations .
[edit]History

Sodepur in the Barrackpore sub division, is historically famous for the Khadi Prathistan where historic decisions with regard to freedom struggle were taken by Gandhiji and other great leaders like Subhas Chandra Bose. In 1921, Satish Chandra Dasgupta, eminent chemist, resigned from Bengal Chemicals influenced by the Gandhian thought of Swadeshi and set up the Ashram . This ashram near the Sodepur Railway Station has a special place in the history of the Indian independence movement. Gandhi termed this ashram as his second home and stayed at this Ashram at various times 1939, 1945, 1946, 1947 and lived here for five to seven weeks. Sodepur is Mostly occupied by the people those were uprooted from Bangladesh (East Pakistan) and those came as refugee in Bangladesh War. Majority of the population of sodepur in its eastern side of rail station migrated as refugees of Bangladesh at present either from division of Bengal in 1947 or during the war of Bangladesh. They were settled either by purchasing lands or having lands from government mostly concentrated at Bankimpalli, Natagarh, Ghola areas as an effort of Mr. Bholanath Bhattacharya of Purbapalli and late Gopal Das. sodepur is the castle of CPM party since long years and continues till this days Sodepur has a new police station of its own though mostly controlled under Khardaha Police station