Howrah (alternatively spelled Haora) is a metropolitan city within Howrah district, in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Howrah Sadar subdivision. Howrah is located on the western bank of the Hooghly River. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). Howrah is an important transportation hub of West Bengal and a major gateway for its twin city of Kolkata.

Even though it is the second largest city in the state, Howrah did not undertake appropriate infrastructure development in the last century.As a result, Howrah is continuing to face its perennial problems like traffic congestion, population explosion and pollution.The ratio of roadspace to the population is low in this city, even comparatively smaller towns like Baharampur enjoy a better ratio.The emigrant labour force from the rest of the state’s rural areas and neighbouring states take refuge in the cheaper quarters in Howrah, bringing the already poor infrastructure to the brink of collapse. Many times such migrations reduce a locality to a poor-infrastructure slum. The name of the novel City of Joy, which has been often the name the Kolkata metropolis been called, is actually based on one such slum of Howrah.

However, recently, work has been done on broadening the national highways and several towns roads. These activities are expected to help in improvement of traffic conditions. Of late, Howrah has seen a lot of new industrial proposals like the Kona Truck Terminus, Kolkata West International City and relocation of the old smoky foundry plants