Lal Dighi is a body of water in the middle of B. B. D. Bagh

B. B. D. Bagh

B.B.D. Bag , formerly called Dalhousie Square, is the shortened version for Benoy-Badal-Dinesh Bag . It is the seat of power of the state government, as well as the central business district in Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal.-Origin of name:B.B.D...

, earlier known as Tank Square or Dalhousie Square, in the heart of Kolkata

Kolkata

Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

, earlier known as Calcutta, in the 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...

n state

States and territories of India

India is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...

 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...

.

History

Lal Dighi in Dihi Kalikata

Kalikata

Kalikata was one of the three villages which were merged to form the city of Kolkata in India. The other two villages were Gobindapur and Sutanuti. Job Charnock, an administrator with the British East India Company is traditionally credited with the honour of founding the city...

 was there before the arrival of Job Charnock

Job Charnock

Job Charnock was a servant and administrator of the English East India Company, traditionally regarded as the founder of the city of Calcutta.-Early life and career:...

.Sabarna Roy Choudhury

Sabarna Roy Choudhury

Sabarna Ray Chaudhury family were the Zamindar of the Kolkata area, prior to the arrival of the British. On November 10, 1698, they transferred, by lease, their rights over the three villages – Sutanuti, Kalikata and Gobindapur - to the East India Company...

 had a kutchery (court-house) and a temple of its family deity Shyam Rai, near Lal Dighi. It was so named possibly because of the red colour the water acquired during dol, the festival of colours. The court-house was first taken on rent and later purchased by the British East India Company.
There are other theories and stories about Lal Dighi. Some say that the reflection of the red colour of the old fort used to sparkle in the water of the tank and so it acquired its name. According to another school of belief, Lalchand Basak, had dug the immense pond and it came to be known as Lal Dighi after his name.

Prankrishna Dutta had given yet another history in Nabyabharat. According to him, the tank was dug by either Mukundaram Seth of Gobindapur

Gobindapur

Gobindapur was one of the three villages which were merged to form the city of Kolkata in India. The other two villages were Kalikata and Sutanuti...

 or his son. He had a court house there, where dol festival was celebrated in a big way. The tank became red or crimson with the colours used and hence the name.

Whatever may have been its beginning, it was deepened and lengthened in 1709 and converted from a dirty pond full of weeds and noxious matter into a much needed reservoir of sweet water.

In the 18th century Tank Square was, ‘in the middle of the city’. It covers upwards of 25 acres (101,171.5 m²) of ground. ‘It was dug” says the Dutch admiral Stavorinus who visited the settlement in 1770, ‘by order of Government, to provide the inhabitants of Calcutta with water, which is very sweet and pleasant. The number of springs which it contains makes the water in it almost on the same level. It is railed around, no one may wash in it.’ The tank was formerly more extensive, but was cleansed and embanked completely in Warren Hastings

Warren Hastings

Warren Hastings PC was the first Governor-General of India, from 1773 to 1785. He was famously accused of corruption in an impeachment in 1787, but was acquitted in 1795. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1814.-Early life:...

’ time. It has always been esteemed the sweetest water in Calcutta, and until the introduction of municipal water supply, was the chief source of supply of drinking water to the European community.

Battle of Lal Dighi

On 18 June 1756, the Battle of Lal Dighi was fought between Siraj ud-Daulah

Siraj ud-Daulah

Mîrzâ Muhammad Sirâj-ud-Daulah , more commonly known as Siraj ud-Daulah , was the last independent Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. The end of his reign marks the start of British East India Company rule over Bengal and later almost all of South Asia...

 and the forces of British East India Company

British East India Company

The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...

, leading to withdrawal of the British from Kalikata, till their victory in the Battle of Plassey

Battle of Plassey

The Battle of Plassey , 23 June 1757, was a decisive British East India Company victory over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, establishing Company rule in South Asia which expanded over much of the Indies for the next hundred years...

 on 23 June 1757.

Underground car park

Government of West Bengal has planned for a 115000 square feet (10,683.8 m²) underground car park at the northern end of Lal Dighi at a cost of Rs. 35 crore. It will accommodate about 700 cars. It will be the biggest car parking plaza in Kolkata. It will be a two-storey structure and it would not cause any harm to the existing Lal Dighi.

Earlier, three construction firms – Simplex Projects Limited, Tantia Construction Company and Samar and Samar, a joint venture with Rajpath Contractors Engineers Limited, had submitted bids on the original tender, but the Public Works Department (PWD) cancelled that and revised the plan. The state government asked private players for free parking zone for 350 VIP cars. When it failed to find a build-operate-transfer partner, it assign PWD the job of constructing the underground car park from the state government’s budget.

The plan has faced various hurdles. The urban development department and PWD have been at loggerheads. PWD and Calcutta Tramways Company

Calcutta Tramways Company

The Calcutta Tramways Company Limited is a West Bengal, India government-run company which runs trams in Kolkata and buses in and around Kolkata...

 could not agree on shifting tram tracks on the north-east of Lal Dighi, along the Netaji Subhas Road. When the PWD sought permission to pump out Lal Dighi water, the fire services categorically said no. The pond also acts as the reservoir for water pumps in the BBD Bag complex. The fire department has stipulated that a minimum water level of 2.5 metre must be maintained during the two-year construction of the parking plaza. Lal Dighi’s current water level is 6 metre. The project is expected to be completed around October 2010.

B. B. D. Bagh is likely to undergo a regeneration drive, possibly with financial aid from US-based World Monuments Fund

World Monuments Fund

World Monuments Fund is a private, international, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and cultural heritage sites around the world through fieldwork, advocacy, grantmaking, education, and training....

 and some city based chambers of commerce. Set up to further accessorise the centre of the city without losing the old world charm emanating from colonial architecture, Kolkata Regeneration Society (KRS) has been formed with the Governor, Gopalkrishna Gandhi

Gopalkrishna Gandhi

Gopalkrishna Gandhi was the Governor of West Bengal serving from 2004 to 2009. He is the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, and son of Devadas Gandhi and Lakshmi Gandhi. His maternal grandfather was C. Rajagopalachari...

 as chairman. The other functionaries of the society include Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya

Bikash Bhattacharya

Bikash Bhattacharya or Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya is an Indian politician. He served as mayor of Kolkata 2005-2010, heading the Kolkata municipal corporation, in the state of West Bengal.-Short biography:...

, mayor, Barun De

Barun De

Barun De is an Indian historian whose main area of research is Modern India. He has specialised in the social and economic history of India in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Bengal Renaissance, and British constitutional history.-Background:He was born in a Brahmo family of Calcutta...

, historian and Dilip Chakraborty, principal secretary, state information and cultural affairs department. It would function in an advisory capacity.

With about 8 feet (2.4 m) of the twenty feet structure likely to be above ground, engineers, architects and town planners fear that it would be an eyesore in a heritage zone. After a presentation was made to the Kolkata Regeneration Society in June 2007, the Governor has advised a reconsideration of the design.