Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who feels Calcutta was late in embracing the infotech revolution, will be pleased to know that the city is right up there when it comes to the number of Internet users.

The latest Internet in India (I-Cube) report throws up a pleasant surprise: Calcutta has more people hooked on to the Net than so-called tech-savvy metros like Bangalore and Hyderabad.

The study was conducted jointly by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IRMB International in November last year.

According to the report, there are 10.5 lakh “active users” of Internet, i.e. people who log on to the Net at least once a month, in the city. The figure is slightly higher than those for Southern tech twins Bangalore (9.7 lakh) and Hyderabad (9.5 lakh).

“There was a general perception that Calcutta lags behind in Internet usage though people in the know did not have any such notion. The scenario is fast changing. The numbers thrown up by the study clearly prove that,” said Gaurav Chopra, an IAMAI manager.

The numbers of active Internet users in Mumbai and Delhi, however, are much higher. While the national capital region clocks 18 lakh, Mumbai tops the metros with 26 lakh.

“There are 2.5 crore Internet users in the country and the number’s growing at 30 per cent per annum. Calcutta is very much a part of this growth,” said the vice-president (marketing) of Rediff.com, Manish Agarwal.

“Of the 5.36 crore people who use Rediffmail, seven per cent are from West Bengal,” he added.

According to Kuhu Majumdar, the manager (operations) of Z Travel Division, in the five years that she has been in the travel and tourism industry, not only have many Calcuttans started booking train and air tickets online but they are also logging on to find out about the place they want to visit, the travel options and the accommodation available.

“Our clients look up the Net before coming to us. Sometimes they have the latest information and give us updates on hotel and air fare,” said Majumdar.

The I-Cube study shows that 42 per cent of Calcuttans who access the Net do so from their homes, 31 per cent visit cyber cafes and only 19 per cent surf in office. In contrast, Mumbai has a mere 27 per cent surfing from home and 32 per cent logging on in office. The figures suggest Calcuttans generally use the Internet for recreation, socialising and information search.

As expected, Mumbai tops the numbers for visitors to “business or financial information” sites with 10 per cent using it for the purpose. The corresponding figure is five per cent for Calcutta and four per cent for Delhi.

According to the report, Calcutta tops the percentages in a wide range of areas, starting from job searches to matrimony sites to e-commerce. E-mail is a big hit all over the country. Thirty-six per cent of online activity in Calcutta is directed towards the mailbox.