Downtown Kolkata Private Tour (By Air Conditioned Car)

Downtown Kolkata Private Tour (By Air Conditioned Car)

Downtown Kolkata Private Tour is a complete experience of downtown Kolkata in a day which includes the Kolkata food and culture. It is a 27 tourist point tour.

Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product

Stop At: প্রিন্সেপ ঘাট - ২ Princep Ghat 2, Maidan, Fort William, Hastings, Kolkata, West Bengal 700021, India

is a ghat built in 1841 during the British Raj, along the Kolkata bank of the Hooghly River in India. The Palladian porch in the memory of the eminent Anglo-Indian scholar and antiquary James Prinsep was designed by W. Fitzgerald and constructed in 1843.

Prinsep Ghat at night.

Located between the Water Gate and the St George's Gate of the Fort William, the monument to Prinsep is rich in Greek and Gothic inlays. It was restored by the state's public works department in November 2001 and has since been well-maintained. In its initial years, all royal British entourages used the Prinsep Ghat jetty for embarkation and disembarkation.

Prinsep Ghat is one of the oldest recreational spots of Kolkata. People visit it in the evenings on weekends to go boating on the river, stroll along the bank and purchase food from stalls there. One stall selling ice-cream and fast food has been there for more than 40 years. A 2-kilometre (1.2 mi) stretch of the beautified riverfront from Princep Ghat to Babughat (Baje Kadamtala Ghat) was inaugurated on 24 May 2012. It has illuminated and landscaped gardens and pathways, fountains, and renovated ghats. One of the songs in the Bollywood film Parineeta was shot here on the ghats.

Prinsep Ghat also has a railway station named after it. The station is part of the Kolkata Circular Railway which is maintained by Eastern Railway

Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: Royal Calcutta Turf Club, Hastings, Kolkata (Calcutta) India

The Royal Calcutta Turf Club (RCTC), founded in 1847 in Calcutta, British India, became the premier horse racing organization in India during the British Raj. At one time it was the governing body for almost all courses in the sub-continent, defining and applying the rules that governed the sport. During its heyday, the races it organized were among the most important social events of the calendar, opened by the Viceroy of India. During the 1930s the Calcutta Derby Sweeps, organized by the club, was the largest sweepstake in the world. It is still an exclusive private club and still operates the Kolkata Race Course.

Duration: 15 minutes

Pass By: Fort William, Brigade Parade Ground & Race Course, Kolkata (Calcutta) India

Fort William is a fort in Calcutta (Kolkata), built during the early years of the Bengal Presidency of British India. It sits on the eastern banks of the River Hooghly, the major distributary of the River Ganges. One of Kolkata's most enduring Raj-era edifices, it extends over an area of 70.9 hectares. The fort was named after King William III.

Stop At: Shaheed Minar, Dufferin Road, Kolkata (Calcutta) India

The Shaheed Minar (English: Martyrs' Monument), formerly known as the Ochterlony Monument, is a monument in Kolkata that was erected in 1828 in memory of Major-general Sir David Ochterlony, commander of the British East India Company, to commemorate both his successful defense of Delhi against the Marathas in 1804 and the victory of the East India Company’s armed forces over the Gurkhas in the Anglo-Nepalese War. The monument was constructed in his memory. It was designed by J. P. Parker and paid for from public funds.

On 9 August 1969, it was rededicated to the memory of the martyrs of the Indian freedom movement and renamed the "Shaheed Minar," which means "martyrs' monument" in both Bengali and Hindi, by the then United Front Government in memory of the martyrs of the Indian independence movement.

Duration: 15 minutes

Stop At: Eden Gardens, Kolkata Centre, Kolkata (Calcutta) 700021 India

Eden Gardens of Kolkata is actually a beautiful garden park, adjoining Eden Gardens Stadium. On the west of Stadium, and The Band Stand, lies this beautiful, peaceful and serene park.

The two Eden sisters of Lord Auckland, Governor- General of India, laid out these public gardens in 1835. Adjoining a large artificial lake is a Burmese-style pagoda of exquisite design which was transported to Kolkata from Myanmar (Burma) and reconstructed in the garden.

Beside it lies the Eden Gardens Stadium, a cricket ground in Kolkata, India established in 1864. It is the oldest cricket stadium in India. It is the home venue of the Bengal cricket team and the IPL franchise cricket team Kolkata Knight Riders and is also a venue for Test, ODI and T20I matches of the India national cricket team. The stadium currently has a capacity of 68,000. Eden Gardens is often regarded informally as India's home of cricket. The ground has been referred to as "cricket's answer to the Colosseum," and is widely acknowledged to be one of the most iconic cricket stadiums in the world.

Duration: 45 minutes

Pass By: All India Radio Kolkata, Akashvani Bhavan, Near Eden Gardens, Maidan, B.B.D. Bagh, Kolkata, West Bengal 700001, India

The Akashvani Bhawan which is also known as the All India Radio or AIR was established in the year 1956 and this literally means the Voice of the Sky. This stands for the National Public Radio Broadcaster in India and it is also a part of the Prasar Bharati. The prior date of establishment want in the year 1930 and it is considered to be the sister service of the Prasar Bharati’s Doordarshan. This is the National Public Television Broadcaster. These days AIR is covering more than 99 per cent of the Indian listeners and this is the latest data as provided by the Minister of Information and Broadcast.

Pass By: Netaji Indoor Stadium, High Court, Sahid Khudiram Bose Road, Eden Gardens, Kolkata (Calcutta) India

The Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Indoor Stadium is an indoor sports arena, in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The facility seats 12,000 people. This indoor stadium is located just beside the Eden Gardens. It used to host the Sunfeast Open, a WTA Tour tennis tournament. Other international events hosted by the Stadium include the 1981 Asian Basketball Championship. Currently, it is the home of the Pro Kabaddi League team Bengal Warriors.

The Netaji Indoor Stadium hosts a wide range of activities, from sporting events to cultural programmes. It is a venue for both national and international trade fairs. It is also used as a centre of counting of votes during elections.

The venue was inaugurated in 1975 by the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Siddhartha Shankar Ray, for indoor games and cultural events, musical functions and other programmes.

Pass By: Raj Bhavan, Marx Engels Beethi Rd, Governors Camp, B.B.D. Bagh, Kolkata, West Bengal 700062, India

Raj Bhavan is the official residence of the Governor of West Bengal, located in the capital city Kolkata. Built in 1803, it was known as Government House before the independence of India.

After the transfer of power from the East India Company to the British Crown in 1858, it became the official residence of the Viceroy of India, shifting here from the Belvedere Estate. With the shifting of capital to Delhi in 1911 it became the official residence of Lieutenant Governor of Bengal. Since independence in 1947 it serves as the official residence of the Governor of West Bengal and came to be known as the Raj Bhavan, a name it shares with the official residences of other states' governors.

Stop At: General Post Office, B B D Bagh, Kolkata (Calcutta) 700001 India

The General Post Office, Kolkata, is the central post office of the city of Kolkata, India, and the chief post office of West Bengal. The post-office handles most of the city's inbound and outbound mail and parcels. Situated in the B.B.D. Bagh area, the imposing structure of the GPO is one of the landmarks in the city.

Duration: 15 minutes

Pass By: Writers Building, Binoy Badal Dinesh Bag N, Lal Dighi, B.B.D. Bagh, Kolkata, West Bengal 700001, India

The Writers' Building, often shortened to just Writers', is the secretariat building of the State Government of West Bengal in India. The 150-meter long Writers' Building covers the entire northern stretch of the water body locally called Lal Dighi in the B.B.D. Bagh area.

This originally served as the office for writers of the British East India Company, hence the name. Designed by Thomas Lyon in 1777, the Writers' Building has gone through several extensions over the years. It housed the office of the Chief Minister of West Bengal until 4 October 2013. Now, most of the departments have moved out to another building named Nabanna in Howrah on a temporary basis for facilitating renovation.

Stop At: Millenium Park, BBD Bagh Near Strand Road, Kolkata (Calcutta) India

Millennium Park is a private park in Kolkata, situated along the Strand Road on the eastern shore of Hooghly River for a stretch of 2.5 km near Fairlie Ghat and opposite to Railway Club. The park consists of landscaped gardens and children's amusement rides. It was opened along the riverside to provide a green area for Kolkata's polluted waterway. It is a millennium gift from Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA/CMDA) inaugurated on 26 December 1999. The park is part of the first phases of the Kolkata Riverside Beautification Project. The park is open from 11am-8pm.

Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: Howrah Bridge, Jagganath Ghat 1, Strand Road, Kolkata (Calcutta) 700001 India

Howrah Bridge is a bridge with a suspended span over the Hooghly River in West Bengal, India. Commissioned in 1943, the bridge was originally named the New Howrah Bridge, because it replaced a pontoon bridge at the same location linking the two cities of Howrah and Kolkata (Calcutta). On 14 June 1965, it was renamed Rabindra Setu after the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, who was the first Indian and Asian Nobel laureate. It weathers the storms of the Bay of Bengal region, carrying a daily traffic of approximately 100,000 vehicles, and possibly more than 150,000 pedestrians, easily making it the busiest cantilever bridge in the world. The third-longest cantilever bridge at the time of its construction, the Howrah Bridge is currently the sixth-longest bridge of its type in the world.

Duration: 30 minutes

Pass By: Howrah Station New, Howrah Railway Station, Howrah, West Bengal 711101, India

Howrah Junction, more popularly known as Howrah Station, is the oldest and largest railway complex in India, serving the twin cities of Howrah and Kolkata

Pass By: Nabanna Bhavan, No. 325 HRBC Building, Sarat Chatterjee Rd, Naora, Shibpur, Howrah, West Bengal 711102, India

Nabanna is a building in the industrial township of Howrah which houses the temporary State Secretariat of West Bengal. It was inaugurated on 5 October 2013 by Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee. The 14 storied building housed the government's garment park, Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners (HRBC) and was turned into the new secretariat within a month and a half by the PWD department. The chief ministers office is located on the top floor.

Stop At: Vidyasagar Setu, Hooghly River, Munshi Prem Chand Sarani, Kolkata, West Bengal 700021, India

Vidyasagar Setu, also known as the Second Hooghly Bridge, is a toll bridge over the Hooghly River in West Bengal, India, linking the cities of Kolkata and Howrah.

With a total length of 823 metres (2,700 ft), Vidyasagar Setu is the longest cable-stayed bridge in India. It is an Extradosed bridge. It was the second bridge to be built across the Hooghly River. Named after the educationist reformer Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, it cost ₹3.88 billion to build.

Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: Birla Industrial & Technological Museum, Gurusaday Road Beside Ice Skating Rink, adjacent to Modern High School, Kolkata (Calcutta) 700019 India

Birla Industrial & Technological Museum (BITM), a unit under National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), Ministry of Culture, Government of India, is at Gurusaday Road. In 1956 Bidhan Chandra Roy, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal and physician was impressed to see Deutsches Museum of Munich. He thought to set up a science museum and a planetarium in Calcutta. Roy requested to GD Birla for help. Birla donated his residential house to the then prime minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru. The three-storied Victorian style architectural building along with five bighas land of ‘Birla Park’, where they had lived for thirty-five years.

Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Birla Temple, Ashutosh Chowdhury Road 29 Ashutosh Choudhury Avenue, Kolkata (Calcutta) 700019 India

Birla Mandir in Kolkata, India, is a Hindu temple on Asutosh Chowdhury Avenue, Ballygunge, built by the industrialist Birla family

Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: South Park Street Cemetery, Kolkata (Calcutta) India

The Park Street Cemetery was one of the earliest non-church cemeteries in the world, and probably the largest Christian cemetery outside Europe and America in the 19th century. Opened in 1767 on what was previously a marshy area, the cemetery was in use until about 1830 and is now a heritage site, protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). The cemetery was opened to relieve the pressure on the old burial ground in the heart of the city. The road leading to the cemetery came to be known as the Burial Ground Road but was subsequently renamed Park Street after the park around Vansittart's garden house. By the year 1785 the burial ground had been extended on the northern side of Park Street and by 1840 a vast new cemetery was opened to the east of the Lower Circular Road. The Europeans started to disuse it in the year 1790. It has been confirmed by a marble plaque at the gate which reads "South Park Street, Opened:1767, Closed:1790".

Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: Mother House A J C Bose Road, Kolkata (Calcutta) 700016 India

Mother House is the final resting place of Mother Teresa of Missionaries of Charity, Kolkata who is now Saint Teresa of Kolkata.

Duration: 30 minutes

Pass By: Sealdah, Raja Bazar, Kolkata, West Bengal 700014, India

Sealdah railway station is one of the major railway termini serving Kolkata and Howrah, India. The others being Howrah, Shalimar, Kolkata and Santragachi. Sealdah is one of the busiest railway stations in India with a daily passenger footfall of over 1.8 million. It also acts as an important suburban rail terminal.

Stop At: Victoria Memorial Hall, 1 Queen's Way, Kolkata (Calcutta) India

The Victoria Memorial is a large marble building in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, which was built between 1906 and 1921. It is dedicated to the memory of Queen Victoria (1809–1901) and is now a museum and tourist destination under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture.

The Victoria Memorial has 25 galleries. These include the royal gallery, the national leaders' gallery, the portrait gallery, central hall, the sculpture gallery, the arms and armoury gallery and the newer, Calcutta gallery. The Victoria Memorial has the largest single collection of the works of Thomas Daniell (1749–1840) and his nephew, William Daniell (1769–1837). It also has a collection of rare and antiquarian books such as the illustrated works of William Shakespeare, the Arabian Nights and the Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam as well as books about kathak dance and thumri music by Wazid Ali Shah. However, the galleries and their exhibitions, the programmatic elements of the memorial do not compete with the purely architectural spaces or voids.

Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Musical Fountain, Near Victoria Memorial, Maidan, Kolkata, West Bengal 700071, India

Maidan and Fountain of Joy near Victoria Memorial, Kolkata, West Bengal

Duration: 15 minutes

Stop At: Birla Planetarium, Maidan Chowringhee, Kolkata (Calcutta) India

The Birla Planetarium in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, is a single-storeyed circular structure designed in the typical Indian style, whose architecture is loosely styled on the Buddhist Stupa at Sanchi. Situated at Chowringhee Road adjacent to the Victoria Memorial, St. Paul's Cathedral, and the Maidan in South Kolkata, it is the largest planetarium in Asia and the second largest planetarium in the world.

Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: St. Paul's Cathedral, 1A, Cathedral Road, Kolkata (Calcutta) 700071 India

St. Paul's Cathedral is a CNI (Church of North India) Cathedral of Anglican background in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, noted for its Gothic architecture. It is the seat of the Diocese of Calcutta. The cornerstone was laid in 1839; the building was completed in 1847. It is said to be the largest cathedral in Kolkata and the first Episcopal Church in Asia. It was also the first cathedral built in the overseas territory of the British Empire. The edifice stands on Cathedral Road on the "island of attractions" to provide for more space for the growing population of the European community in Calcutta in the 1800s.

Duration: 15 minutes

Stop At: Academy of Fine Arts, 2 Cathedral Road, Kolkata (Calcutta) 700071 India

The academy was formally established in 1933 by Lady Ranu Mukherjee. It was initially located in a room loaned by the Indian Museum, and the annual exhibitions used to take place in the adjoining verandah.

In the 1950s, thanks to the efforts of Lady Ranu Mookerjee and patronage by B.C. Roy, Chief Minister of West Bengal, as well as Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister of India, the academy was shifted to a much larger space in the Cathedral Road, beside St. Paul’s Cathedral, the present location. At present Mr Prasun Mukherjee is the chairman of the board of trustees and Mr Kallol Bose is the Jt. secretary of the executive committee.

There are some famous paintings here like Saat Bhai Champa by Gaganendranath Tagore, Shiva with Ganesh by Jamini Roy.

Duration: 15 minutes

Stop At: Rabindra Sadan, 71, Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Rd, Maidan, Park Street area, Kolkata, West Bengal 700020, India

Rabindra Sadan is a cultural centre and theatre in Kolkata, located near the Nandan cinema and cultural complex and the Academy of Fine Arts on AJC Bose Road in South Kolkata.

Duration: 15 minutes

Stop At: Nandan West Bengal Film Centre, 1/1, A.J.C. Bose Road, Circus Ave, Kolkata, West Bengal, Kolkata (Calcutta) 700020 India

Nandan is a government-sponsored film and cultural centre in Kolkata, India. The primary aim of the cultural hub is to encourage and facilitate cinematic awareness in society. It includes a few comparatively large screens housed in an impressively architectured building.

The foundation stone of Nandan was laid by former Chief Minister of West Bengal Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and was officially inaugurated on 2 September 1985 by film-maker Satyajit Ray. The complex, besides being a modern cinema and cultural complex, is a popular destination for the young and the aged alike.

Nandan is one of the main venues of the Kolkata International Film Festival, hosting it till 2010. While in 2011 the opening and closing ceremonies were shifted to Netaji Indoor Stadium, Nandan remains the main centre for the festival.

Duration: 15 minutes