The Contents of Fort William Will Now be Revealed to the Public

This heritage walk was recently experienced by West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The fort was named after King William III, and the British Raj built it in 1775, following the capture of the first fort in 1756 by Nawab Siraj-ud-Dullah. The fort's architecture displays the history of the East India Company and Indian forces and currently serves as the Eastern Command's headquarters. The fort has many stories to tell, including the Black Hole of Calcutta and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's cell.

The first stop of the heritage walk is the Vijay Smarak, a war memorial dedicated to fallen soldiers. The Command Museum, originally used to store weapons and ammunition during the British Raj, displays rocket launchers in the weapons gallery and an upside-down flag of East Pakistan in the gallery dedicated to the 1971 war. The Kitchener House, an imposing structure combining classic Gothic and Georgian architectural styles, was named after HH Kitchener, First Earl of Khartoum, who stayed there when he was commander-in-chief in 1902. The Dalhousie Barracks, a four-story building, houses more than 1,000 soldiers from the garrison battalion stationed inside Fort William.

Through this heritage walk, the Army aims to raise awareness of what lies beyond this strictly guarded and highly secure military stronghold from the British era.