Kulti


Kulti is a neighbourhood in Asansol of Paschim Bardhaman district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is governed by Asansol Municipal Corporation

Geography

Location

Kulti is located at latitude 23°43'60N and longitude 86°50'60E at an elevation of 114 meters.
Asansol is composed of undulating laterite soil. This area lies between two mighty rivers – the Damodar and the Ajay. They flow almost parallel to each other in the region – the average distance between the two rivers is around 30 km. For ages the area was heavily forested and infested with plunderers and marauders. The discovery of coal in the 18th century led to industrialisation of the area and most of the forests have been cleared. At the western fringe of the area the Barakar River forms the boundary with Jharkhand.

Urbanisation

As per the 2011 census, 83.33% of the population of Asansol Sadar subdivision was urban and 16.67% was rural. Asansol Sadar subdivision has 26 Census Towns..

Asansol Municipal Corporation

According to the Kolkata Gazette notification of 3 June 2015, the municipal areas of Kulti, Raniganj and Jamuria were included within the jurisdiction of Asansol Municipal Corporation.
Kulti police station has jurisdiction over parts of Asansol Municipal Corporation. The area covered is 96 km2 and the population covered is 310,000.

History

IISCO Plant

Earlier a small village, Kulti has grown around the IISCO plant for more than a century. The plant has many historical achievements to its credit:
India's first blast furnace was built way back in 1870, when even in the industrially developed countries there were few blast furnaces. That open-top blast furnace used coal instead of charcoal for the first time, thereby introducing modern metallurgy to India. The furnace was in operation from 1875 till the fifties when it was dismantled, as the plant at Burnpur was expanded.
Steel was made for the first time in India in 1904, in open hearth furnaces. The furnace lost out to the cheap steel dumped into the country from England. Steel making withered away and Kulti remained an iron making plant with numerous foundries producing a wide range of intricate castings. Large castings and large diameter cast iron pipes produced at Kulti for more than century are still being used at many places throughout the country. Technological obsolescence and vast changes in the process of steelmaking forced the closure of the foundries.
Spun pipes were produced for the first time in India by the centrifugal casting process in 1942. Even when other plants came up, Kulti continued to have a national market share of 50-70%. While technological obsolescence ate away its roots, unfair market practices finally forced it to down its shutters. This plant was forcibly closed by connivance of Factory Unions, Politicians and Private Sector Steel Manufacturers. In 2003, the plant was closed down with voluntary retirement to most of the workers.
In 2007, the IISCO plant was amalgamated with SAIL and has been revived as SAIL Growth Works,Kulti. In 2010, the Public Sector Undertaking of Ministry of Railways namely RITES Limited signed a joint venture agreement with the Public Sector Undertaking of Ministry of Steel namely Steel Authority of India Limited for setting up a wagon manufacturing factory in joint venture at Kulti in the premises of SAIL Growth Works,Kulti.

Administration

As per orders of the Delimitation Commission, 282 Kulti assembly constituency covers Kulti municipality. Kulti assembly segment is part of Asansol. Ujjal Chatterjee of Trinamool Congress won the Kulti assembly seat in 2006. Maniklal Acharya of Forward Bloc had won the seat in 2001. Prior to that the seat was won by Maniklal Acharjee of Forward Bloc in 1996 and 1991, Tuhin Samanta of Congress in 1987, Madhu Banerjee of Forward Bloc in 1982 and 1977. Ramdas Banerjee of Congress won in 1972 and 1971, Dr. Taraknath Chakrabarti of Samyukta Socialist Party won in 1969, Dr. Jai Narayan Sharma of Congress in 1967 and 1962, Benarasi Prasad Jha of PSP in 1957. In 1952, independent India's first election, Kulti was a twin member constituency, and those elected were Jai Narayan Sharma and Baidyanath Mondal, both of Congress.

Demographics

As per the 2011 Census of India Kulti municipal area had a total population of 313,809, of which 163,193 were males and 150,616 were females. Population below 6 years was 35,385. The total number of literates in Kulti was 209,952.
India census, Kulti had a population of 290,057. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Kulti has an average literacy rate of 62%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 70%, and female literacy is 52%. In Kulti, 12% of the population is under 6 years of age. According to the census, 19% of the population in Kulti is Muslim, 70% Hindu. Other minorities such as Christian, Sikhs, Buddhist and Jain constitute the rest of the city's population

Nearby places