| Tala tank | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Tala water tank from the demolished Tala Bridge | |
 | |
| Alternative names | Tallah Tank |
| General information | |
| Status | Operational |
| Location | Kolkata |
| Address | 71, Barrackpore Trunk Road, Paikpara, West Bengal |
| Country | India |
| Coordinates | 22°36′36″N 88°22′44″E / 22.61000°N 88.37889°E |
| Construction started | 18 November 1909 |
| Completed | 12 January 1911 |
| Opened | 16 May 1911 |
| Cost | ₹1.1 million (equivalent to ₹360 million or US$4.4 million in 2023) in 1909–10 |
| Owner | Kolkata Municipal Corporation |
| Governing body | Kolkata Municipal Corporation |
| Height | 110 ft (34 m) |
| Dimensions | |
| Weight | 44 thousand tonnes |
| Technical details | |
| Material | Concrete, Steel and Burmese teak wood |
| Floor area | 321 sq ft (29.8 m2) |
| Grounds | 3–4 acres (12–16 thousand square metres) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | W. B. MacCabe |
| Architecture firm | Calcutta Corporation Water Works |
| Main contractor | M/s T K Mukherjee and Co.; M/s Martin and Co.; Arracon Co. and Clayton, Son & Co. of Leeds |
| Known for | World's largest overhead water reservoir |
| Website | |
| kmcgov.in/WaterSupply | |
The Tala tank, also spelled Tallah tank (Bengali pronunciation: [ˈʈala tæŋk]), is a water tower in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Construction started in 1909 and it was inaugurated in May 1911 by Edward Norman Baker, the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal. The tank, which is owned by Kolkata Municipal Corporation, is fed by Palta Water Works near Barrackpore. More than 110 years after construction, the tower remains the major water supplier to the city of Kolkata.
The water tower, which is claimed to be the world's largest overhead water reservoir, covers 3–4 acres (12,000–16,000 m2), has a capacity of 9.9 million imperial gallons (45,000 cubic metres), stands 110 ft (34 m) off the ground and weighs 44 thousand tonnes – including water – at maximum capacity. The tank has four individually isolated chambers and a single pipeline for the water source from Palta and to send the water supply to the city.
The steel was imported from the United Kingdom and is of similar quality to that which was used to build the RMS Titanic. It has survived multiple calamities including the 1934 Nepal–India earthquake, World War II Imperial Japanese aerial bombings from 1942 to 1944 and Cyclone Amphan in 2020.
The water tower has undergone renovations since its centenary, under the consultancy of IIEST Shibpur, Jadavpur University, IIT Kharagpur and Central Electrochemical Research Institute at an estimated cost of ₹250 million (equivalent to ₹420 million or US$5.1 million in 2023). The renovations were carried out one chamber at a time to prevent interruptions in the city's water supply.