Contai is a city and a municipality in Purba Medinipur district, West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Contai subdivision. According to the geologists, the present geographical dimension of Contai, has formally came into existence, with the great natural disaster of the third century AD (flood) which created Chilka lake out of the Chilka Bay.
Kanthi, that is
Contai, means "Sand-bound reefs" or sand walls. The name
Contai may thus be an English expression of the local jargon meaning "sand heaps".