Hooghly River

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This 260 Km long river is a large distributary of River Ganga. The river splits from The Ganga at Giria locality and initially started to flow towards west. A feeder canal from Farakka Barrage meets the river near Ghosh Para, Banga Bari village. This feeder canal increases the volume of water flow massively and started flowing towards south direction. Number of small tributaries from the hills of Jharkhand met with the river on its course. On the upper course, this river is popularly known as Bhagirathi. Practically, the name Hooghly started from its confluence with Jalangi river near Mayapur, Nabadweep. This river plays a pivotal role in the water transport of West Bengal. Many towns like Jangipur, Jiyaganj, Murshidabad, Berhampore, Katwa, Nabadweep, Chinsurah, Naihati and cities like Howrah and Kolkata are situated on the bank of this river. Some of the people of West Bengal call this river as Ganga. This river has many historic links also. There are some major road and railway bridges across this river at Jangipur, Murshidabad, Berhampur, Nabadweep, Kalyani, Naihati, Dakhineswar, Howrah and Kolkata. Some small river islands have been formed by prolonged deposition of silt, out of which 'Sagardweep' is the largest one. Hoogly river empties in Bay of Bengal.