As the world marks World River Day on Sunday, 27th September, urban renewal and heritage are coming together on the banks of the Hooghly. Eden Realty Group is turning vision into reality, officially releasing the structural blueprints and development roadmap for its Banaras-style Ganga Ghats along the Howrah waterfront. The ghats will anchor the Group’s landmark riverfront developments, led by Eden Devprayag.
The project marks a new chapter in how private enterprise can work with the spirit of the Ganga. It aims to redefine luxury living, the public-private interface, and urban ecology in the twin cities of Kolkata and Howrah.
A River That Built a City
Kolkata grew from settlements on the Hooghly in 1690, and the river has shaped its trade, faith and identity ever since. A distributary of the Ganga, which flows roughly 2,525 km and sustains more than 400 million people across its basin, the Hooghly is equally the lifeline of the Howrah bank, home to the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden (1787) and IIEST Shibpur. Yet while historic ghats such as Babughat and Prinsep Ghat remain living public spaces, much of the western riverfront is still underused and cut off from the communities around it.
Bringing the Spirit of Banaras to the Hooghly
Varanasi’s famed ghats, more than 80 stone stairways descending to the Ganga, are among the world’s most recognised riverfront public spaces. They offer a place for ritual, recreation, and community all at once. Eden Realty’s ghats reinterpret that tradition for a modern Howrah.
Key features of the plan include:
Stepped riverfront ghat: 100 metres of landscaped, stepped riverfront ghats along Lower Foreshore Road, Shibpur.
Ceremonial and cultural infrastructure: A dedicated Ganga Aarti zone framed by the stepped ghat, alongside a large-format banquet facility for cultural events, festivals and social gatherings. The roof of the banquet is planned as an open-air terrace, featuring a swimming pool overlooking the Ganga and an adjoining poolside party lawn.
Public realm and lighting: A continuous public promenade along the water’s edge, with heritage-themed architectural lighting that articulates the ghat’s form after dark and supports evening Aarti and cultural programming.
Riverbank protection and ecology: The ghat’s structural design is based on a riverbank protection plan prepared by Jadavpur University, addressing bank stability along a tidal stretch of the Hooghly that experiences daily water-level variation and seasonal high flows. Sufficient native green buffers along the bank will help bind the soil, moderate surface runoff and support riparian biodiversity.
Water management: A zero-liquid-discharge (ZLD) framework, under which 100% of wastewater generated is treated and reused on site for non-potable applications. No effluent will be discharged into the river, safeguarding its water quality.
Investment and Delivery
The ghat represents an investment of more than ₹20 crore and forms part of a wider ₹150 crore riverfront development that includes a river side 5 Star hotel. Designed by architect Kapil Bhalla of Se-arch, the ghat is scheduled for completion ahead of the next Ganga Dussehra, the festival that celebrates the descent of the Ganga to earth. The project is being developed in collaboration and with the support of Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Kolkata (SMPK), which administers much of the city’s riverfront.
Anchored by Eden Devprayag
At the heart of the waterfront stands Eden Devprayag, the Group’s flagship luxury township on Lower Foreshore Road, Shalimar. Spread across 9 acres, the project comprises five towers of B+G+28 storeys, with simplex and duplex residences.
Devprayag sits within the larger Kolkata Westshore vision, a 38-acre development on Shalimar Road, which positions Howrah’s riverfront as the city’s next premium address.
A Model for the Public-Private Interface
The ghats align with the national push for river rejuvenation under the Namami Gange programme, launched in 2014. The project reflects a collaborative model in which a private developer funds, designs and delivers public riverfront infrastructure in partnership with the port authority, with scientific inputs from an academic institution guiding its engineering. The result is civic infrastructure that remains open to every citizen.
Eden Realty’s approach rests on a simple conviction: a riverfront is not a private view but a shared inheritance. Luxury residences, hospitality and public ghats are planned as one continuous landscape, so that residents, pilgrims, families and visitors meet at the water’s edge.
“The Ganga gave this city its life. On World River Day, we are proud to give something back. Our ghats are not just an amenity for our residents. They are a gift to Howrah and Kolkata, a place where heritage, community and the river come together again. We believe responsible development can restore the riverfront, not just build beside it.”
— Arya Sumant, Managing Director, Eden Realty Group
