Markets in West Bengal

There are numerous interesting shops along Chowringhee Rd selling everything from carpets to handicrafts. The Central Cottage Industries Emporium at 7 Chowringhee Rd is quite good. The shops along the entrance arcade to the Oberoi Grand Hotel are interesting but not as entertaining as Chowringhee's amazing variety of pavement vendors who sell everything from water pistols to underwear to dancing dolls. Kolkata's administration is trying to move the street hawkers to underground markets in an attempt to clear the footpaths, but the unionised street merchants have so far resisted attempts to budge them.

Amid this melee are runners from other shops, particularly the New Market, looking for customers. Naturally, 'their' shop is only 'just round the corner', but this is rarely true. If you follow them, it's going to take up quite a bit of your time and the prices of the goods which you are invited to examine will be relatively high. After all, it's a long way back and a lot of wasted time for them to find another punter.

New Market, formerly Hogg Market, is Kolkata's premier place for bargain shopping. Here you can find a little of almost everything and it is always worth an hour so of wandering around. A particularly good bargain, if you're flying straight home from Kolkata, is caneware. This is ridiculously cheap compared to prices in the west and is, of course, very light if rather bulky.

Between Sudder St and New Market is an expensive air-con market. In the basement is City Express Supermarket offering fully computerised checkouts and at least one supermarket helper per customer, some even involved in product promotion!

There's another good street market along Lenin Sarani in the evenings. Down Sudder St or in the lanes running off both sides, those in search of highs derived from the plant kingdom are attended to by touts offering a range of services. Discretion is the key word.

Although the West Bengal government is reluctant to admit that the political turmoil in the Hills has affected the tourism industry in Darjeeling and the surrounding areas, it is attempting to aggressively market other destinations within the state to ensure a steady inflow of tourists.

“Darjeeling is a destination that is almost two centuries old and there is no replacement for it. However, we are trying to bring up other destinations in West Bengal and the number of inbound tourists have been increasing at a rate higher than the national average,” state tourism Manab Mukherjee said. Mukherjee said that Dooars, Malda, Murshidabad, Santiniketan as well as the sea beaches in the south of the state were being increasingly frequented by tourists. The state government, through the West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation (WBTDC), was also working on a number of cultural festivals to act as promotional vehicles for establishing new tourist destinations.

“Next year, we are going to organise a cultural festival at Bishnupur for showcasing the musical heritage of the region and are also planning to hold a festival at the Hazarduari (Palace) in Murshidabad to promote the culture and crafts of the erstwhile Nawabs of Bengal,” Mukherjee said. He was speaking at a press meet for the West Bengal Tourism & Food Festival 2010.