Academic Departments University of Calcutta

History

Year of Establishment : 1978

History of the department : The centre was established as a research centre by the University under the special assistance programme of University Grants Commission in the Department of Economics with urban economics as the thrust area. For the last quarter of a century, it has established itself as a premier multi-disciplinary research centre of urban studies in India. A number of dissertations done under the guidance of faculty members have been awarded M.Phil and Ph.D degrees. Apart from publishing books, monographs, discussion papers and database for urban studies and a bi-annual newsletter, it has been regularly holding workshops, seminars and short-term courses on different aspects of urban studies. It has been engaged in different type of collaborative activities with other organisations like Indian Council of Social Science Research, Anthropological Survey of India. Other than the regular faculty members and research staffs of the Centre, it also accommodates eminent researchers on urban topics from related disciplines like Political Science, Sociology, Geography, History, as honorary associates. It also offers Urban Economics and Urban Planning as optional papers as a part of the post-graduate course in Economics. Urban Economics is also offered as an optional paper in MPhil (Economics) course.

Academic

Faculty Members :
Name Designation Area of specialisation Email / Phone number
Mahalaya Chatterjee
[Profile]		 Professor Urban and Regional Economics, Urban Governance &Planning, Development Management,Managerial Economics [email protected]
[email protected]
033-2475-4502
09339863775
8100491838
Sudakshina Gupta
[Profile]		 Professor Transport Economics, Economic Theory [email protected]
9830740683
23376515(R)
Kausik Gupta
[Profile]		 Professor & Director International Economics, Environmentaland Resource Economics [email protected]
[email protected]
Post-doctoral Research Associates :
Name Research topic Funding agency
Dr. Aditi Chatterji Landscape and the Bengali Diaspora Indian Council of Social Science Research
Dr. Sarani Khatua Governance of Urban Periphery - A case study of contemporary Kolkata University Grants Commission

Courses :

Programme Level of study Eligibility Intake capacity
Urban Management & Planning PG Diploma  Graduate in Social Science, Architecture, Town Planning 15

Research

Research scholars :
Name Research topic Name of the supervisor Date of registration
Aparajita Chakrabartty Role of Public Transport in Managing Congestion and Pollution Sudakshina Gupta 28 March 2012
Arup Ratan Misra Infrastructure Financing for Small and Medium Towns in West Bengal Mahalaya Chatterjee  31 July, 2015
Dipankar Bhattacharjee Urban Services and Its Delivery: A Study of West Bengal Mahalaya Chatterjee 3 March, 2015.
Dyuti Lahiri Female Employment In The Tertiary Sector Of India - A Post Liberalisation Analysis Mahalaya Chatterjee 26 May 2015
Joy Karmakar Creation of Urban Space through Development of Planned Townships in West Bengal Mahalaya Chatterjee (with Ranjan Basu) 26 June 2015
Soumitra Gayen Pattern of Urbanization and Urban Settlement in Eastern India" Mahalaya Chatterjee  29 January2014
Shatabdi Das Impact Of Industrialisation and Urbanisation On The Environment Of Asansol-Durgapur Planning Area Sudakshina Gupta (jointly with Sukla Bhaduri) 16  December 2015
Collaborations :
Title of the programme Principal collaborator of the department Name and address of the collaborating institution Principal collaborator of the collaborating institution Duration of the programme
Intermediate Public Transport in Mega-city Region of Kolkata Region Mahalaya Chatterjee Centre for Policy Research, Dharma Marg, New Delhi 110021;
I-trans, IIT Delhi		 Mukta Naik’
Anvita Arora		 June 2015-May 2016
Transformation and resilience of urban Coast (TRUC) Mahalaya Chatterjee National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management
Ministry of Environment and Forests
Koodal Building, Anna University Campus
Chennai 600 025		   December 2015-
Thrust areas in teaching and research of the academic centre :
  • Urban economics, urban governance and planning, occupational and demographic changes;
  •  Transportation economics and policy
  • Social and sectoral issues related to urbanisation.

Teaching support :

  • All the courses are planned to combine classroom teaching (with audio-visual aids) field trips and project preparation;
Major activities :
  • The Centre regularly organizes conferences, workshops and seminars in state and national levels.
Date Topic Speaker
September 25-26, 2010 Urban development in Howrah : socio economic perspective Two-day National Seminar
May 18-19, 2011 Urbanization and its challenges towards environment at degradation Jointly organized with Centre for Regional Economic Studies,  (CRES) Department of Economics, Bongaigaon College, Bongaigaon, Assam
August 4-5, 2011 Urbanization and transport problems : prospects, issues related to planning Organized by the Centre
19 papers were presented besides Keynote address by Prof. Dilip Halder and Valedictory address by Prof. Monideep Chatterjee
August 16-17, 2012 Urbanization trends and environmental concerns Organized by the Centre in collaboration with the Directorate of Census Operations, Government of West Bengal and Anthropological Survey of India
March 16, 2013 Municipal Planning and Reforms in West Bengal Organized by the Centre in collaboration with the Association of Planning and Reforms Officers
February 15, 2014 Urban Women in Contemporary India One-day Seminar
March 17, 2015 Urban Poverty: celebrating and Challenging the New Common Sense: professor Ananya Roy, University of California, Berkeley Organized by CUES, attended by faculty members, students and research scholars
 April 24, 2015 Neo-Liberalisation and Urban Scenario in India: Issues related to Land, Infrastructure and Governance: workshop conducted by Professor Swapna Banerjee-Guha, Senior Fellow, ICSSR Organized by CUES, attended by research scholars on urban studies
August 28, 2015 Critical Issues in Indian Official Statistics: A Look into Census Data Organized jointly with Directorate of Census Operations, West Bengal, attended by faculty members and research scholars
December 15, 2015 Intermediate Public Transport in Mega-city Region of Kolkata Region Organised jointly with Centre for Policy research, New Delhi, I-trans, IIT Delhi funded by Sakti Sustainable Energy Foundation
February 26,   2016 Conservation and Heritage – issues in Economics, Politics and Technology Panel discussion attended by eminent architects and conservationists
  • The Centre has its own series of discussion papers (with ISBN no for the last two years). The research activities of the centre and researchers of allied areas are published here. Two issues are published every year from 1992.

Discussion Paper Series :

  • Solid Waste Management in Calcutta Metropolis – Pabitra Giri and Sulipi De (May 1992)
  • Waterlogging and Issues Relating to Drainage in Calcutta Metropolitan District –Arpita Bhattacharyya (June 1992)
  • The Structure and Working of an Urban Labour Market in India: A Survey of Two Residential Locations in Calcutta – Asis Kumar Banerjee (July 1992)
  • Evolution and Growth of Municipal Towns in Calcutta Metropolitan Area –Mahalaya Chatterjee (August 1992)
  • Wholesale Market: Study of a Market in Calcutta –Projjwal Sengupta  (September 1992)
  • Thika Tenancy in Bustees of Calcutta: A Study – Swati Ghosh (October 1992)
  • Aspects of Goods Flow in Calcutta Metropolitan Area –Pabitra Giri (November 1992)
  • Housing in Calcutta: Problems and Policy Issues – Nipa Ghosh (December 1992)
  • The Metro Rail of Calcutta: A Study – Kuntala Lahiri  (January 1993)
  • Passenger Transport in Calcutta Metropolitan District –Sudeshna Sen  (February 1993)
  • Consumption and Income in Calcutta Metropolitan Area – Indrani Chakrabarty (March 1993)
  • Some Aspects of Calcutta Port – Arun Prasad Sen (April 1993)
  • Metropolitan Growth and Demographic Changes in Calcutta –Pabitra Giri and Sukla Bhaduri (May 1993)
  • Urban Environmental Issues: A Study of Calcutta – Ashish K. Ghosh (January 1994)
  • Calcutta Port: Problems and Prospects – Sachinandan Sau (February 1994)
  • Urban Decentralization: A Case Study of Kalyani Township –Nandita Dasgupta (August 1994)
  • Urban Sanitation Problems: A Study of Calcutta –Swadesh Kumar Bhattacharya (September 1994)
  • Market Towns in Tamilnadu and West Bengal – Eight Development Issues for Field Research and Action – Barbara Harriss-White (June 1997)
  • Wetlands and Urban Environment - Ashish K. Ghosh, Sivabrata Chatterjee and K. J. Nath (July 1999)
  • Contrasting Urban Patterns: West Bengal, Punjab and Kerala –Biplab Dasgupta (May 2000)
  • The Indian Hill Stations: A Study in Social Space – Aditi Chatterji (July 2000)
  • Transportation Policy for the Control of Vehicular Air Pollution in Urban Areas: Applying Lessons from North to Calcutta, India – Madumati Dutta (September 2001)
  • Urbanisation in the Pre-colonial Bengal –Biplab Dasgupta (December 2001)
  • Emerging Issues in Bio-Medical Waste Management – Sushma Wadhwani (January 2002)
  • Urbanization and Agricultural Change in North-Eastern India – J. B. Ganguly (October 2003)
  • An Analytical Study of the Growth Experience in the Small Industries of Howrah and Burdwan Districts, 1988-2000 – Nandita Basak (October 2003)
  • Truck Terminals in Kolkata Metropolitan Area: Master Planning and Market Response – Anis Mukhopadhyay (August 2004)
  • Labour Market Segregation and Gender Bias –Pampa Sengupta (September 2004)
  • Urbanisation, Migration and Urban Society in Colonial Bengal - Biplab Dasgupta (December 2005)
  • The Growth Experience of the Small Scale Industries of North 24 Parganas and Medinipur Districts, West Bengal, 1988-2001- Nandita Basak (October 2007)
  • An Environmental Valuation of an Urban Wetland: A Case Study of the Jodhpur Park Lake – Simanti Banerjee and Ashish K. Ghosh (2007)
  • Evolution and Growth of Municipal Towns in Kolkata Metropolitan Area –Mahalaya Chatterjee (August 2008)
  • Polluting Behaviour of Different Modes of Transport in Big Cities and Policy Implications for Pollution Reduction: The Case of Kolkata, India – Madhumati Dutta, Mohit Roy and Sudip K. Roy (July 2009)
  • Spatial and Economic Changes in Asansol, 1951-2001(1/2012) - Mousumi Ghosh
  • Some Aspects of Urbanisation in Eastern India (2/2012)- Somali Chakravorty & Malabika Dasgupta
  • Modern Mobility, rejuvenation of Howrah and East-West Metro (1/2013)- Anis Mukhopadhyay
  • Kolkata Metro: A Study On Passenger Movement And Financial Health (1990-2010) (2/2013) - Koyel Bhattacharjee
  • Symbolic Urban Landscape: Science City, Kolkata (1/2014) – Aditi Chatterji
  • Use Of Pedestrian Bridge: A Case Study In Kolkata  (2/2014) – Tarun Kumar Sarkar
  • Perspectives of Planned New Towns, Its Transformation, Evaluation, Challenges and Problems: Case of West Bengal (1/2015) – Joy Karmakar
  • Growth of Ports and Port Towns in India in the Post Independence Period: in the context of Trade and Urbanisation (2/2015) - Aparna Banerjee, Dr. Sudakshina Gupta, Dr. Uttam Kumar Bhattacharya

Database Series :

Links :
  • http://www.niua.org
  • http://www.cprindia.org
  • http://www.censusindia.gov.in

Additional information :

  • The centre has a library with 3000 books on urban topics from various disciplines. It has also collection of journals of social sciences. The collection of books by Professor Bhabatosh Dutta is also here.

Contact

Campus : Alipore (Shahid Kshudiram Siksha Prangan)

Address for communication : Centre for Urban Economic Studies, A-wing, Sixth floor, 1, Reformatory Street, Kolkata 700027. Telefax: 033-24790156 email: [email protected]