Subdivisions

Districts of West Bengal

The 19 districts of West Bengal are as listed below.

Bankura Bardhaman Birbhum Cooch Behar Darjeeling East Midnapore Hooghly Howrah Jalpaiguri Kolkata

Malda Murshidabad Nadia North 24 Parganas Uttar Dinajpur Purulia South 24 Parganas Dakshin Dinajpur West Midnapore

Each district is governed by a district collector or district magistrate, appointed either by the Indian Administrative Service or the West Bengal Civil Service. Each district is subdivided into Sub-Divisions, governed by a sub-divisional magistrate, and again into Blocks. Blocks consists of panchayats (village councils) and town municipalities.

The capital and largest city of the state is Kolkata — the third-largest urban agglomeration and the fourth-largest city in India. Siliguri is an economically important Metropolitan City, strategically located in the northeastern Siliguri Corridor (Chicken's Neck) of India. Asansol, Durgapur are the other Metropolitan cities in the western industrial belt. Other major cities and towns in West Bengal are Howrah, Raniganj, Haldia, Jalpaiguri, Kharagpur, Burdwan, Darjeeling, Midnapore, Tamluk, Malda andCooch Behar.