Image Credits: David Nelson
Great cities, they say, are ones that grow around a river. London developed around the Thames. Rome wasn’t built in a day but it sure grew around the Tiber as did Paris around Siene. Vienna has Danube, Moscow’s got Moskva. Alexandria and Cairo share Nile. Baghdad grew around Tigris, Istanbul around Bosphoros and Amsterdam around Amstel. India is no exception. Delhi was built around Yamuna and Kolkata next to Hooghly. Sadly, that’s where the comparison ends.
Charles Correa claims Kolkata “has turned its back on its river, unlike Paris or London, and paid a heavy price for the apathy” (but all is not lost yet).
