Dhulian is a city and a municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 in Murshidabad district

Murshidabad district

Murshidabad district is a district of West Bengal in eastern India. Situated on the left bank of the river Ganges, the district is very fertile. Covering an area of 5,341 km² and having a population 5.863m it is a densely populated district and the ninth most populous in India...

  in the state of West Bengal

West Bengal

West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. It is located between the Ganges and the Hooghly canal.

Dhulian has been mentioned as an inland water transport (IWT) trading point between Murshidabad

Murshidabad

Murshidabad is a city in Murshidabad district of West Bengal state in India. The city of Murshidabad is located on the southern bank of the Bhagirathi, a distributary of the Ganges River. It was the capital of undivided Bengal during the Mughal rule. Nawabs of Bengal used to rule Bengal from this...

 and the city of Rajshahi

Rajshahi

The city of Rajshahi is the divisional headquarters of Rajshahi division as well as the administrative district that bears its name and is one of the six metropolitan cities of Bangladesh. Often referred to as Silk City and Education City, Rajshahi is located in the north-west of the country and...

 in Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

. Low-cost barges could potentially ply the Ganges river, called Padma

Padma River

The Padma is a major trans-boundary river in Bangladesh. It is the main distributary of the Ganges , which originates in the Himalayas. The Padma enters Bangladesh from India near Chapai Nababganj...

 in downstream Bangladesh, exchanging goods and reducing smuggling. This proposal has not been agreed to yet by the two countries.

Geography

Dhulian is located at 24.68°N 87.97°E. It has an average elevation of 4 metres (13 feet).

Dhuliyan is surrounding by Farkka (to the north), Aurangabad (to the South) Pakur (to the West) and Ganges River (Ganga) (to the East).

Demographics

In the 2011 census, Dhulian Urban Agglomeration had a population of 239,022, out of which 119,151 were males and 119,871 were females. The 0-6 years population was 45,483. Effective literacy rate for the 7+ population was 60.06 per cent.
India census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

, Dhulian had a population of 72,906. Males constitute 50% of the population and females 50%. Dhulian has an average literacy rate of 39%, lower than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 48% and, female literacy is 31%. In Dhulian, 20% of the population is under 6 years of age.