The area was then a low-lying expanse of saltwater lakes, marshes and fishing grounds.
The project began on April 16, 1962, when then West Bengal chief minister Bidhan Chandra Roy switched on a pipeline carrying dredged material from the Hooghly into the Salt Lake area. A Dutch engineering consultancy had surveyed the area in 1953, and the government subsequently acquired land for the reclamation project. The first residents moved into the new township in March 1970, according to historical records of Salt Lake’s development.
The West Bengal government began pumping material dredged from the Hooghly into the Salt Water Lakes east of Kolkata to create land for a new township. The area was then a low-lying expanse of saltwater lakes, marshes and fishing grounds, while the city was looking for more land to accommodate its growing population. The government brought in a Yugoslav firm and used dredgers, barges and pipelines to pump sandy slurry into the wetlands. Over the next few years, the reclaimed land was developed into what is now Bidhannagar, better known as Salt Lake. The idea was to reclaim the low-lying Salt Water Lakes and create a planned township on the eastern edge of Kolkata. The government had begun examining the area as a possible site for the city’s expansion in the 1950s. The engineering challenge was considerable. The proposed township stood on land that was largely below the level considered suitable for urban development, so the area had to be filled and raised. The government awarded the reclamation work to the Yugoslav firm Invest Import after a global tender.Dredgers were used to extract material from the Hooghly, which was then transported towards the Salt Lake area through a system involving tugboats, barges, boosting stations and pipelines. The area was initially planned largely as a residential township, with roads and sectors laid out in a planned pattern. Over time, other parts developed into commercial and institutional centres.