Uttarpara Kotrung

Uttarpara Kotrung, usually called Uttarpara, is a city and municipality in Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal, within 10 km of Kolkata on the Hooghly River opposite the Dakshineswar Kali Temple. It lies in the southernmost part of the district, separated from Bally in Howrah by the Bally Canal, and was formerly known as North Bally. The city is home to the Uttarpara Jayakrishna Public Library, described as Asia's oldest free public library, where the Bengali poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt spent his last days. The Hindustan Motors factory in the Hindmotor neighbourhood produced the Ambassador car until 2014. The municipality, established in 1853, is one of the oldest civic bodies in West Bengal, and the 2011 census of India counted 159,147 residents.