Raurkela, Odisha, India

History | Geography | Economy | Universities

🇮🇳 Rourkela is a planned city located in the northern part of Odisha, India. It is the third-largest Urban Agglomeration in Odisha. It is surrounded by a range of hills and encircled by rivers – Koel, Sankha, and Brahmani. The city is also popularly known as Ispat Nagar and also as the Steel City of Odisha. It has one of the largest steel plants of the Steel Authority of India Limited known as Rourkela Steel Plant. It also home to one of the National Institutes of Technology.

The city has been selected as smart city in the third phase of the smart city list. Every year, on 3 March Rourkela Day is celebrated. Rourkela has been declared India's Fastest Moving City. Raurkela is categorised as a Tier-2 city.

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History The twin towns of Rourkela and Fertilizer Township, as well as their developed periphery, are located in areas that were once covered by dense forests. These forests were once a favourite hunting ground for the kings in the past. According to the census report of 2011, Rourkela has a population of 483,038 (Rourkela Industrial Township is 273,217 and Rourkela Town is 210,412) and the urban metropolitan area population is 536,450. Then railway station of Rourkela was within the revenue village of Mahulpali. India's first public sector steel plant facility was established in Rourkela with the help of German businesses Krupp and Demag. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the town was the largest German colony outside Germany.

There was a village called Durgapur in between Rourkela and Panposh stations. The construction of the sub-divisional court building was started in 1945 at the village Durgapur. Hence the nearby hills were also known as Durgapur Pahada (Durgapur Hills), today it is known as Uditnagar. As a result, the two railway stations of Panposh and Rourkela came into recognition.

Following India's independence, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, wanted to make India an industrialised state in Soviet model of social development; giving wings to his dreams, Sri Biju Pattanaik convinced Pandit Nehru to consider the location of Rourkela for setting up a steel plant. The mineral-rich zone of Rourkela intersected by the rivers Brahmani, Koel and Sankha from two sides was aptly chosen for the same.

The preliminary survey for the steel plant at Rourkela was started in 1952 and the Government of Odisha issued a gazette notification on 16 February 1954. In accordance with the notification, the Government of Odisha acquired an area of about 80 square miles around Rourkela for the purpose of Steel Plant. The German private companies Krupp and Demag came forward to provide financial and technical help for the proposed steel plant at Rourkela. Krupp built Rourkela Steel Plant drawing from experience from its own works in Essen, Germany. The technical experts of the company advised the Government of India as well as the Government of Odisha for acquiring more land. As a result, a further area of 32 square km was acquired out of 31 revenue villages. Almost 13,000 people in 2,424 families lost their dwelling. Later further 11,000 acres (4,500 ha) of land were acquired out of 31 revenue villages for the construction of Mandira Dam, a water embankment. Moreland was requisitioned for the purpose of constructing railway lines to Hatia and Barsuan. The construction of the Bondamunda Railway junction required the further acquisition of land which resulted in 20,000 people's displacement from their habitat. Though there was initial discontentment among the tribals about the land acquisition the authority largely resolved the land dispute, as many of the tribals were provided employment and accommodation. The displaced tribals were relocated to places such as Jalda, Jhirpani, Bisra, and Bondamunda. Their new settlement even extended beyond the river Koel.

Thousands of technical personnel from West Germany came to Rourkela to extend their technical assistance. Some of these Germans came with their family and their small diaspora created the 'Indo-German Club' to socialise. The club exists today with a well-stocked library known as Max Muller library. There are a plethora of local stories of Germans social encounters with tribals (local Adivasis) and people from other parts of India who had relocated themselves to Rourkela for employment. A large part of this population was from coastal and western Odisha who were trained by the German workforce to adapt to the steel plant's technology rigour. The steel plant, which was hugely surrounded by forest, many times witnessed wild animals straying into the plant area. A royal Bengal tiger's lugubrious death in the steel plant's massive blast furnace is a part of the city's folklore. There were also tales about the disappearance of Germans in the nearby Vedvyas cave and the dread whirlpool of river Koel. The river still accounts for human casualty as some day-trippers wade into the water unaware of the maelstrom.

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Geography Rourkela is locate in Sundergarh district of Odisha at an elevation of about 219 m (719 ft) above mean sea level. The area of Rourkela is 200 square km approximately. Being situated on the Howrah-Mumbai rail track, Rourkela had an added advantage of the steel plant being set up there. Red and laterite soils are found here which are quite rich in minerals. The area near Rourkela is rich in iron-ore hence a steel plant is situated in Rourkela. Bolani and Barsuan are the two most prominent mines situated near the town. Rourkela is situated in a hilly region. A small hill range named Durgapur Pahad runs through the heart of the city dividing it into plant area and the steel township. The name "Durgapur" comes from an old village that existed at the foothills long time ago before the plant was set up. The South Koel River and Sankha rivers meet at Vedvyas, Rourkela and flow as a single river called Brahmani.

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Economy Rourkela is the industrial capital of Odisha (Formerly Orissa). Rourkela, with a population of 6 lakhs and the first place in India to house the 1.8 million ton integrated steel plant, joins the IT world through STPI. Location-wise it is integrated with infrastructure such as rail, road, air, abundant natural mineral resources such as water, land, power, rich pool of skilled people, top-rated social and civic infrastructure for reposing, and Universal friendliness. These factors have attracted many industrialists to choose Rourkela as their destination. Rourkela has never faced any sort of natural calamity whatsoever, except for some heavy rainfall. STPI has already set up and dedicated earth station in Rourkela to welcome the IT entrepreneurs for their uprising destination.

As Rourkela has tag as Steel City and house of many heavy industries like Steel, Sponge Iron, Chemical, Fabrication, Cement etc. There are number of small to large manufacturing industries for economic activity in and around the city. • Steel Authority of India - Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) • NTPC-SAIL Power Company Limited, (NSPCL) Rourkela • OCL India Limited in Rajgangpur • Larsen & Toubro Fabrication Plant in Kansbahal • Kalunga Industrial Estate • Bondamunda-Rourkela Locomotive Sheds (Indian Railway) • Software Technology Parks of India 'STPI', Rourkela.

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Universities National Institute of Technology Rourkela: NIT Rourkela is one of India's premier technical institute, and is recognised as an Institute of National Importance. Its foundation stone was laid by the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru in the year of 1961. It was granted autonomy in 2002 and now functions independently under the Ministry of Education. Research at the institute carried out at one of the high-tech collaborative centres, such as the Centre for Robotics and Space Technology Incubation Centre.

Biju Patnaik University of Technology: (BPUT) head-quarters in Rourkela came into being in November 2002 through an act of the Odisha state legislature and foundation stone was laid by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the hon’ble President of India. The main objective of university is to ensure a high quality of students coming out of the technical colleges through a common curriculum and uniform evaluation.

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Raurkela, Odisha, India 

Raurkela has a population of over 483,038 people. Raurkela also forms the centre of the wider Raurkela metropolitan area which has a population of over 536,450 people. For the location of Raurkela see: Rourkela.

To set up a UBI Lab for Raurkela see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

Antipodal to Raurkela is: -95.133,-22.233

Locations Near: Raurkela 84.8667,22.2333

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Antipodal to: Raurkela -95.133,-22.233

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