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| Main Spiritual Guides Page > Main India Page> West Bengal > Calcutta > Calcutta Travel | ||||
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Travel - Calcutta Getting
Around The black-and-yellow cabs can travel only in the city; the yellow cabs can make suburban journeys. The cost of a cab is the meter price plus 50%. This percentage will change, so it is a good idea to ask a local for accurate costs. The Government of India Tourist Office can arrange tourist cabs for the day. Rates are around Rs 50 an hour plus Rs 5 per km, with a minimum charge of Rs 250. There is a prepaid taxi stand outside the Howrah railway station. It is Rs 25 to Sudder St, but you may have to wait fifteen minutes for a cab. Other cabs (immediate) will charge Rs 40 or Rs 50 to get to Sudder St. To get a local bus from Howrah Station to the Chowringhee (Sudder St) area is easy. There is a bus stand right next to the station. Buses #S7 and #S27 go to the Sudder St area. Ask for the Indian Museum, which is a few blocks from the hotels, on Sudder St. The bus costs Rs 2. Ferries can be a nice way to get around. You can catch a ferry from Howrah across the river to Chandpol Ghat or Fairlie Ghat. In
central Calcutta there are human-pulled rickshaws, which operate in
the New Market–Sudder St area. They are especially used during
the monsoon when the streets are severely flooded. The Indian Airlines Office on JL Nehru Rd, has a counter for tourists. This means you can finish your work quickly. It is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Indian Airlines have international flights to Kathmandu, Bangkok, Dhaka, and Chittagong. From Calcutta there are flights to Bangalore (2 daily, $240), Bhubaneswar (6 weekly, $75), Chennai (2 daily, $200), Delhi (5 daily, $185), Guwahati (2 daily, $75), Hyderabad (2 daily, $195), Kathmandu (1 daily, $100), Lucknow (2 daily, $140), Mumbai (6 daily, $205), Port Blair (4 weekly, $200) and Visakhapatnam (3 weekly, $130). The
Calcutta Airport has retiring rooms, and a place to change money at
the international terminal. GSA Jet Air (477–783), 230A Acharya
J C Bose Rd, handles booking for several airlines such as Gulf Air,
Philippine Airlines, and Kuwait Airways. Tourist quota reservations are made at 6 Fairlie Place, near BBD Bagh. The counter is open Mon to Sat 9 am to 1 pm, 1.30 to 4 pm, and on Sun 9 am to 2 pm. You can also book trains not departing from Calcutta here if you have an Indrail pass. If
you do not have an Indrail pass and need to book a train from another
city, go to the other tourist quota office at 14 Strand Rd. You can
purchase tickets from there to or from Mumbai, Chennai, and Delhi, up
to sixty days before departure, except the Shatabdi Express can be booked
only fifteen days before departure. The fastest train to Delhi is the A/C Rajdhani Express #2305 (1.45 pm, 18 hr), which departs from Howrah daily, except Wed and Sat. The Poorva Express #2381 or #2303 (9.15 am) and the Kalka Mail #2311 (7.15 pm) are two good trains to Delhi. The Poorva Exp #2381 departing on Tue, Wed, and Sat at 9.15 am, goes to Varanasi (12 hr) and then arrives in Delhi the next morning. The fastest train to Mumbai is the Gitanjali Express #2860 (12.30 pm, 33 hr). For Chennai, the best train is the Coramandel Express #2841, which leaves Howrah at 2.05 pm, arrives at Bhubaneswar at 9.40 pm, and at Chennai at 5.35 pm the next day. Trains can take much longer to get to Chennai during the monsoon, as the railway tracks can be flooded in Andhra Pradesh. The Puri Exp #8007 (10.15 pm) takes ten hours to get to Puri. There are nine trains daily to Bhubaneswar. There are also trains to Ahmedabad, Nasik, Haridwar, Lucknow, and Gaya. Trains to Krishnanagar depart from Sealdah train station, and trains to Navadvipa leave from Howrah. The Darjeeling Mail #3134 departs from Sealdah at 7 pm and arrives in New Jalpaiguri at 8.30 am. From there you can then catch the “Toy Train” or a bus (4 hr) to Darjeeling. WARNING!
Howrah railway station is one of the worst places in the world
for pickpockets and other thieves. You should be totally alert. I know
of many attempted thefts there. One person had fiberglass dropped down
his shirt. When he dropped his bags to try to get it out, his bags disappeared.
Another person had his money belt cut off by a man who had a razor blade
glued on his finger nail. He caught the guy. A minute later, the tall man grabbed a suspicious-looking man right in front of us and screamed at him. He then dragged him off the train. My friend followed them off the train to see what was happening. I too wanted to watch, but decided I should stay with the luggage. My friend came back and told me that the tall man, one of the guys who was looking for the bag, and another man were forcing the guy they had caught to empty his pockets, apparently checking to see if he had stolen anything. This confirmed my brilliant observation that they were police after all. The train started and I relaxed. I decided to jump up to the top bunk and go to sleep. My friend then went to get his computer, which he had put on the top bunk. To his dismay it was gone. Neither one of us had any idea what had happened to it. We asked the attendants and the ticket collector if the men who had put on the show were police, but they said that was impossible. One
moral to the story is never carry valuable electronic equipment (computer
or video camera) in a camera or computer bag. Put your camera bag into
another, more innocent looking bag, so no one knows you have the equipment
or where it is located. Obviously the thieves observed us on the railway
platform while we were waiting for the train. My friend had his computer
in a Microsoft computer bag; I had placed my camera bag inside my backpack
so no one would know I had it. The main buses that travelers take are the ones to Siliguri and New Jalpaiguri (for Darjeeling). West Bengal Tourism runs an express bus, which departs Calcutta at 8 pm to Siliguri (17 hr) and Jalpaiguri (17 hr, Rs 155). Tickets should be purchased in advance. A bus to the Bangladesh border departs at 6.45 am. There is a direct bus to Mayapur at 7 am in the morning from the Esplanade Bus Stand. To Vishnupur (5 hr) there are three buses in the morning before 9 am and another one at 2.45 pm. If you know of a informationthat is not correct or if you would like to help update our listings, please e-mail us at:
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