The transformation of the nearly 250-year old Barrackpore Trunk (BT) Road — one of India's oldest metalled roads — from an ancient neighbourhood to a modern one has been documented in a new coffee table book.

"Reinvention" captures the dramatic transformation of the BT Road that was built in the year 1775. It connects Barrackpore, in the suburbs, to Kolkata.

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"We do books on countries, we do books on cities but we don't do books on neighbourhoods. The BT Road is passing through a dramatic transformation from a legacy, ancient neighbourhood to a modern one. And transformation doesn't mean that you will obliterate the ancient relics," Mudar Patherya, director TrisysCommunications, the agency responsible for writing and designing the book,said.

The route was once used by the British Empire to travel from their capital Calcutta (now Kolkata) to Barrackpore (the oldest Indian cantonment of the British).

"Trucks are getting off the road and decongestion is happening. So there is a need to rebrand it. The new is not taking over at the expense of the old. There is a co-existence," Patherya said referring to the book.