Haldia is an industrial city and municipality in Purba Medinipur district, in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a major riverport and industrial belt located approximately 125 kilometres southwest of Calcutta near the mouth of the Hooghly River, one of the distributaries of the Ganges. The city has a total population of 2,00,827.
Cashew nut Processing, Horn Products, Embroidery Garments manufacturing are the major employment providers in the Purba Medinipur district. The district has 54% of the workforce employed in the Agricultural Sector, 39% in the Industrial Sector and the remaining 7% are Household workers.
The district has 4 Sub-divisions, viz. Tamluk Sub-division, Haldia Subdivision, Egra Sub-division and Contai Sub-division. There are 25 Community Development (C.D.) Blocks, 5 Municipalities in the district. Tamluk Sub-division has got 7 C.D. Blocks namely, Nandakumar, Moyna, Tamluk, Shahid Matangini, Panskura, Kolaghat, Chandipur (Nandigram-III). Haldia Sub-division has got 5 C.D. Blocks namely, Mahisadal, Nandigram-I, Nandigram-II, Sutahata and Haldia. Egra Sub-division has got 6 C.D. Blocks namely, Bhagawanpur-I, Bhagawanpur-II, Egra-I, Egra-II, Patashpur-I and Patashpur-II. Contai Sub-division has got 8 C.D. Blocks namely Contai, Deshopran, ContaiIII, Khejuri-I, Khejuri-II, Ramnagar-I, Ramnagar-II and Bhagawanpur-II.
The soil structure of the district is mostly heavy type although in some places light and medium soils are also found. Soils group consists of 2 major groups – vind alluvium and coastal. River water is an important source of irrigation for agricultural activities in district. The rivers flow from North to South or South-East direction. The major rivers are Haldi, Rupnarayan, Rasulpur, Bagui and Keleghai. They provide a big relief to the large number of agriculture based population of the district.
