Calcutta: 3rd. city to get electric power
 
Did you know that Calcutta was the third city to get electric power in the world!!

The electrification of Calcutta took place 17 years after New York, the first city to have electricity in 1882 and eleven years after London,
which was electrified in 1888. P W Fleury & Co was the first one in India that conducted first demonstration of electric light in Calcutta
on 24 July, 1879. Yet another demo was done by Dey Sil & Co  on 30 June, 1881 and  it lit up 36 electric lights  in the Garden Reach Cotton Mills
owned by  Mackinnon & Mackenzie.  In 1899 the first thermal power plant of Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation Limited was commissioned during
Lord Curzon's period. Calcutta, then the Capital of the British  Empire,  was considered the second largest city next to London.

After the  arrival of electric power in Calcutta  the Government of Bengal  passed  the Calcutta Electric Lighting Act in 1895. The first license
was  issued  for a period of 21 years, initially covering an area of 5.64 square miles, which has now grown  to 567 sq kms.

With a capital of 1000 pounds  on 7 January, 1897 Kilburn & Co,  registered in London,  secured the Calcutta electric lighting license as agents of
The Indian Electric Co Ltd.  Subsequently it changed its name to The Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation Limited with additional capital of
1,00,000 pounds. In  December, 1898  its  clients were Bank of Bengal (now the State Bank of India), The Bengal Club on Chowringhee and several
private residences. The power was supplied on trial basis.