Haldia Tourism and Travel Guide

Haldia is a city and a municipality in Purba Medinipur in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a major riverport and industrial belt located approximately 125 kilometres southwest of Calcutta near the mouth of the Hooghly River, one of the distributaries of the Ganges. The population in 2011 was 200,762.Haldia is being developed as a major trade port for Calcutta (Kolkata), intended mainly for bulk cargoes. The industrial city has several major factories, including South Asian Petrochemicals Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), Exide, Shaw Wallace, Tata Chemicals, Haldia Petrochemicals and Hindustan Lever, in addition to various light industries. The port has attracted Major International Petrochemicals Companies, like Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC). Mitsubishi Chemicals has the Second Largest Terephthalic Acid Producing Plant in Haldia.The Haldia Township is bordered by the Haldi River an offshoot of the Ganges River. The riverside in Haldia is a favorite destination for residents and one can see people strolling down the riverside during the evenings. A catamaran service used to operate from Kolkata to Haldia, but was withdrawn due to its high price and a decreasing number of passengers.Haldia is also a base of Indian Coast Guard. Indian coast guard DHQ 8 (Headquarters for West bengal) is located at haldia. There is a hoverport to house four of the eighteen hovercrafts belonging to the Indian Coast Guard. Indian coast guard also have pantoon jetty to berth fleet of ships. Presently two fast petrol vessels one inshore petrol vessels and one small craft is based at haldia. However basing of these vessels at haldia need to be evaluated in terms of usefullness owing to the location and time requiered to reach sea from haldia. It is one of the major ports in India.