Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India

Early history | Begum rule | Post independence | Bhopal gas tragedy | Geography | Civic utilities | Culture | Architecture | Economy | Industries

🇮🇳 Bhopal is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the City of Lakes due to its various natural and artificial lakes. It is also one of the greenest cities in India. It is the 16th largest city in India and 131st in the world. After the formation of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal was part of the Sehore district. It was bifurcated in 1972 and a new district, Bhopal, was formed. Flourishing around 1707, the city was the capital of the former Bhopal State, a princely state of the British ruled by the Nawabs of Bhopal. Numerous heritage structures from this period include the Taj-ul-Masajid and Taj Mahal palace. In 1984, the city was struck by the Bhopal disaster, one of the worst industrial disasters in history.

Bhopal has a strong economic base with numerous large and medium industries operating in and around the city. Bhopal is considered as one of the important financial and economic destinations in Madhya Pradesh's two strong wealth pillars, the other being Indore. Bhopal's GDP(nominal) was estimated at INR 44,175 crores (2020–21) by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Madhya Pradesh. A Y-class city, Bhopal houses various educational and research institutions and installations of national importance, including ISRO's Master Control Facility, BHEL and AMPRI. Bhopal is home to a large number of institutes of National Importance in India, namely, IISER, MANIT, SPA, AIIMS, NLIU, IIFM, NIDMP and IIIT (currently functioning from a temporary campus inside MANIT). Bhopal city is also the divisional headquarter of Bhopal division of west central railways (WCR), whose office is located at Habibganj.

Bhopal city also has Regional Science Centre, Bhopal, one of the constituent units of the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM).

The city attracted international attention in December 1984 after the Bhopal disaster, when a Union Carbide pesticide manufacturing plant (now owned by Dow Chemical Company) leaked a mixture of deadly gases composed mainly of methyl isocyanate, leading to one of the worst industrial disasters in the world's history. The Bhopal disaster continues to be a part of the socio-political debate and a logistical challenge for the people of Bhopal.

Bhopal was selected as one of the first twenty Indian cities (the first phase) to be developed as a smart city under PM Narendra Modi's flagship Smart Cities Mission. Bhopal was also rated as the cleanest state capital city in India for three consecutive years, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Early history According to folklore, Bhopal was founded in the 11th century by the Paramara king Bhoja, who ruled from his capital at Dhar. This theory states that Bhopal was originally known as Bhojpal after a dam (pal) constructed by the king's minister. An alternative theory says that the city is named after another king called Bhupala (or Bhupal). According to yet another version, Raja Bhoj suffered from leprosy. His physician advised him to build a lake with water from 365 rivers and take daily bath in it. When such a lake was built, it was called Bhoj Tal [or Bhoj's lake]. Gradually people started calling the city Bhojpal, and finally Bhopal.

Mausoleum of Dost Khan founder of Bhopal state

In the early 17th century, Bhopal was a small village in the Gond kingdom. The modern Bhopal city was established by Dost Mohammad Khan (1660-1726) died at the age of 66, a Pashtun soldier in the Mughal army. After the death of the emperor Aurangzeb, Khan started providing mercenary services to local chieftains in the politically unstable Malwa region. In 1709, he took on the lease of Berasia estate and later annexed several territories in the region to establish the Bhopal State. Khan received the territory of Bhopal from the Gond queen Kamlapati in lieu of payment for mercenary services and usurped her kingdom after her death. In the 1720s, he built the Fatehgarh fort in the village, which developed into the city of Bhopal over the next few decades.

Begum rule Bhopal became a princely state after signing a treaty (During the reign of Nazar Mohammed Khan 1816–1819) with the British East India Company in 1818. Between 1819 and 1926, the state was ruled by four women, Begums – unique in the royalty of those days – under British suzerainty. Qudsia Begum was the first woman ruler (between 1819 and 1837), who was succeeded by her granddaughter, Shah Jehan. Between the years 1844–1860, when Shah Jehan was a child, her mother Sikandar (only daughter of Qudsia) ruled as regent. Curiously during the 1857 revolt, Sikandar supported the British, for which she was rewarded by proclaiming her as king in 1858. To give her further honor, she was given a 19-gun salute and the Grand Cross of the Star of India. The latter made her equivalent to a British person, who had been granted a knighthood. Thus she became, at that time, the only female knight in the entire British Empire besides Queen Victoria. Among the relatively minor rewards, a territory was restored to her, that she had earlier lost to a neighbouring prince.

Sikandar ruled until 1868, when Shah Jehan succeeded her and was Begum until 1901. In 1901, Shah Jehan's daughter Kaikhusrau Jahan became Begum, ruled until 1926, and was the last of the female line of succession. In 1926, she abdicated in favour of her son, Hamidullah Khan, who ruled until 1947, and was the last of the sovereign Nawabs. The rule of Begums gave the city its waterworks, railways, a postal system, and a municipality constituted in 1907.

Post independence Bhopal State was the second-largest Muslim-ruled princely state: the first being Hyderabad. After the independence of India in 1947, the last Nawab expressed his wish to retain Bhopal as a separate unit. Agitations against the Nawab broke out in December 1948, leading to the arrest of prominent leaders including Shankar Dayal Sharma. Later, the political detainees were released, and the Nawab signed the agreement for Bhopal's merger with the Union of India on 30 April 1949. The Bhopal state was taken over by the Union Government of India on 1 June 1949.

Bhopal gas tragedy In early December 1984, a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal leaked around 32 tons of toxic gases, including methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas which led to the worst industrial disaster in the world to date.

The official death toll was initially recorded as around 4,000. A Madhya Pradesh government report stated 3,787 deaths, while other estimates state the fatalities were significantly higher (16,000) from the accident and the medical complications caused by the accident in the weeks and years that followed. The higher estimates have been challenged by Union Carbide, however, medical staff in the city were not able to adequately record data due to the massive influx of patients. The impact of the disaster continues to this day in terms of psychological and neurological disabilities, blindness, skin, vision, breathing, and birth disorders.

The soil and ground water near the factory site have been contaminated by the toxic wastes. The Bhopal disaster continues to be the part of the socio-political debate; the clean-up of environmental contamination and rehabilitation of those affected continues to challenge the people of Bhopal.

The centre is seeking a direction to Union Carbide and other firms for ₹ 78.44 billion additional amount over and above the earlier settlement amount of US$470 million in 1989 for paying compensation to the gas tragedy victims.

Geography Bhopal has an average elevation of 500 metres (1401 ft) and is located in the central part of India, just north of the upper limit of the Vindhya mountain ranges. Located on the Malwa plateau, it is higher than the north Indian plains and the land rises towards the Vindhya Range to the south. The city has uneven elevation and has small hills within its boundaries. The prominent hills in Bhopal are the Idgah and Shyamala hills in the northern region, together with the Katara hills in the southern region. There are two lakes namely upper lake and lower lake. The Upper Lake has a surface area of 36 km² and catchment area of 361 km² while the Lower Lake has a surface area of 1.29 km² and catchment area of 9.6 km2. Recently, Bhopal Municipal Corporation came with a resolution to involve local citizens in cleaning, conserving and maintaining the lakes. Bhopal city is divided into two parts where one part which is near the VIP and lake is Old Bhopal (north) and the other, New Bhopal (south), where malls are mainly situated. List of pin codes from Bhopal is 462001 to 462050 which comes under Bhopal postal division (Bhopal Region).

Civic utilities Bhopal Development Authority is the apex body for planning and co-ordination of development activities in the Mandhya Pradesh, which consists of Bhopal and its influence area, and was set up in 1976 under the Bhopal Development Authority Act, 1974.

Electricity in Bhopal is distributed by the Madhya Pradesh Madhya Kshetra Vidyut Vitaran Company Limited, the central discom of the state. It is regulated by the state electricity board, the Madhya Pradesh State Electricity Board (MPSEB), which is located in Bhopal. Fire services are provided by the Bhopal Municipal Corporation.

Bhopal Municipal Corporation is responsible for planning, constructing and maintaining the water supply system within the city. Natural sources of water are surface water (upper lake, kolar reservoir, narmada river), with a significant portion of the population depending on ground water (tubewells, handpumps) as well as privately owned and unaccounted for dugwells and borewells. According to a study done in 2014, piped water supply in the city covers about 6% of the population; however, irregular and bad quality of water supply is a common complaint in the city.

The system of solid waste disposal in urban areas is governed by the municipality under the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules 2000. These rules have been framed under the Environment Protection Act, 1986. The city of Bhopal generates 900 tonnes of solid waste. As of 2018, only 1.5% of this waste is segregated. While the municipality website states that door-to-door collection was started by BMC at each zone and ward level from 15 August 2013, Free Press Journal has reported in 2020 that the civic body has failed in the same. Bhopal has 8 transfer stations, where the garbage collected zone wise is dumped, and without any segregation, the waste is transferred to the Adampur Chhawni landfill site. In 2018, after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed the BMC to clean dump at Bhanpur, which activists claim is 80 feet high and has polluted ground water up to 500 metres below, the trenching ground was shifted to Adampur. In 2019, it was announced that India's first e-waste clinic was being set up in Bhopal. BMC along with Central Pollution Control Board came together to establish this clinic which will enable segregation, processing and disposal of waste, both residential and commercial. In January 2020, the clinic was inaugurated for operations. It started initially as a three-month pilot and if the pilot is successful, the clinics will be opened in other places as well.

As of 2017, the city of Bhopal produces 310 MLD of sewage per day, of which only 50 MLD is treated in the 7 Sewage treatment plants that have a capacity of 80 MLD. Most of the sewage reaches water bodies, the Upper and Lower Lake, Motia Lake, Siddique Hasan Lake, Munshi Hussain Khan Lake. There are about 800 large drains in Bhopal. About 80% sewerage water mixes with storm water drains main drains include Patra, Mandi and Hataikheda, Jatkhedi.

After a gap of 25 years, the state capital's masterplan 2031 was finally released in March 2020 by the Directorate of Town and Country Planning, Madhya Pradesh. The previous masterplan of 1995 was valid until 2005; and Bhopal had no masterplan between 2005 and 2020. Bhopal Municipal Corporation was ranked 3rd out of 21 Cities for best governance and administrative practices in India in 2014. It scored 3.7 on 10 compared to the national average of 3.3.

Culture Diwali and Eid are major festivals in Bhopal. Gifts and sweets are exchanged and donation are made to the poor. Diwali is celebrated by worshiping the wealth goddess Lakshmi. Eid is special to the city as all the Hindus take time out to visit their Muslim friends and greet them and get treated with delicacies, the speciality of the day being sweet sewaiya. Bhopali culture is such that both Hindus and Muslims visit each other on their respective festivals to greet and exchange sweets. During Ganesh puja and Durga Puja (Navratras), idols of Ganesh and Durga are established in jhankis throughout the city. People throng to offer prayers to their deities. At the end of Navratras, on the day of Vijayadashami (or Dussehra), huge effigies of Ravan are burnt in different parts of the city. Apart from jhankis, several Bengali associations like TT Nagar Bengali association, BHEL Kalibari, Arera Colony Bangiya parishad, Sundervan Bairagarh, Purbachal club, Habibganj Kalibari, Kolar Kalibari celebrates the annual Durga puja in a huge way where large idols of mother goddess and pandals are installed and bhog is served. TT nagar Bengali association had its 65th year Durgotsav in the year 2021. Also, these associations conduct several cultural programmes and other pujas like Kalipuja, Saraswati puja etc. One of the famous kali puja in new bhopal region is Trilanga Kali puja committee which conducts kalipuja from the last 25 years. Other places of worship and cultural activities for the Bengali Speaking Hindu diaspora includes Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama and Bharat Sevashram Sangha. Bhopal Ijtema is an annual Muslim world preachers congregation, is held at EIntkhedi 11 km from Bhopal. The annual congregation near Bhopal attracts between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Muslims globally.[00]

Architecture The Nawabs of Bhopal built several structures including the Taj-ul-Masajid and Taj Mahal palace in Indo-Islamic and European styles.

Bharat Bhavan is the main cultural centre of the city, and hosts many theatre and film festivals every year.[01] It has an art gallery, an open-air amphitheatre facing the Upper Lake, two other theatres and a tribal museum. The Bharat Bhavan as well as the MP Legislative Assembly were designed by Charles Correa.

Economy The economy of Bhopal is heavily industrial based with pharmaceutical, automobile, textile, and production of electrical goods mostly being prevalent. Nominal GDP of Bhopal District was Rs. 44,175 crores for the year 2020–21 with a per-capita GDP of INR 1,40,729 as per the Directorate of Economics and Statistics (Madhya Pradesh).[02] The major industries in the old city are electrical goods, medicinal, cotton, chemicals and jewellery. Other industries include cotton and flour milling, cloth weaving and painting, as well as making matches, sealing wax, and sporting equipment.[03] The residents of Bhopal also engage in large retail businesses. Handicrafts, like zardozi and batua (a small string purse, usually used with Indian traditional dresses) are some of the products of the Old City.[04]

Bhopal is also home to the DB Corp, informally called the Bhaskar Group (named after its major publication Dainik Bhaskar), a ₹17 billion business conglomerate with a strong presence in media. Its head office is located in Maharana Pratap Nagar. While an IT Park, near Bhopal Airport, houses various software development companies and the city is expected to further enlarge its IT presence in near future with giants like WIPRO intending to establish software development centre in the city.[05] Other Software and IT companies established in the city include Sutherland Global Services, ISoft InfoTech, Soluzione IT Services, Netlink Software Pvt Ltd., Caresoft Inc India, Osmo IT Solution Pvt Ltd., and many more.

Manjul Publishing House, located in the old city, is a major publishing house made famous by the translation of the Harry Potter series of novels into Hindi.[06]

Industries • Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, the largest engineering and manufacturing enterprise in India, has a unit in Bhopal. It occupies a large area in the Eastern Part of the city and maintains a suburb named after it. A majority of the residents of the BHEL Suburb are employed by the unit.[07] Govindpura Industrial Area is a huge industrial zone situated in northern limits of the city. • Mandideep is an industrial suburb of Bhopal. It is located to the south of the city on the NH 12.[08] Manufacturing units in Mandideep include HEG Limited, Procter & Gamble, Lupin Limited, Eicher Tractors, Insulators and Electricals Limited, Tafe Motors And Tractors Limited, B. S. Engineering Works, etc.[09] • Rapidly transforming industrial zones near Bhopal also include Bagroda AKVN, Tamot Plastic Park and Acharpura Industrial Area. With the state government providing conducive environment for setting up of manufacturing units, the industrial zones have seen exponential demand from the investors to purchase the land which are provided at heavily subsidized prices. • Bhopal also has in its vicinity Badiyakhedi Industrial Area (Sehore), Pilukhedi Industrial Area (Rajgarh), Budhni Industrial Area (Sehore), Jamuniya Khejda (Raisen) and Mohasa Babai Industrial Area (Narmadapuram). The industrial areas have attracted huge investments with companies like Welspun Corp. Ltd, Vardhaman Industries, Trident Group, Lapp India, and Inox Air Products Pvt. Ltd. already operating manufacturing plants in various industrial belts.

Upcoming Projects • Bhopal also has many other mega projects lined up in its vicinity. In March 2022, Madhya Pradesh government announced the development of Bagroda Industrial Area Phase-2 after observing the immense interest of investors to set up manufacturing units near Bhopal. The government has also decided to develop Berasia Industrial Area in Bhopal district, a site close to Jaipur-Bhopal Highway and Delhi-Gwalior-Bhopal Highway. • In the sphere of IT development, a mega skill park with a total investment of more than INR 1,500 crores is being built in the eastern portion of the city. The Global Skills Park, Bhopal is a highly touted project of the Central and the state government which is being funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The Park is expected to be fully commissioned at the end of 2023. While the IT Park near Bhopal Airport is eying investments of software companies including TCS and Wipro. IT startups of the city are already functioning in this area. • Bhopal is set to be a crucial intermediate city under the recently announced Delhi-Nagpur industrial corridor. While a multi-modal logistics park has been proposed to take shape near Mandideep. NHAI has already prepared DPR for the upcoming ring road project between Obaidullaganj and Sehore with a cost of around Rs. 720 crores.

Asia/Kolkata/Madhya_Pradesh 
<b>Asia/Kolkata/Madhya_Pradesh</b>
Image: Photo by Rohit Raj on Unsplash

Bhopal was ranked #651 by the Nomad List which evaluates and ranks remote work hubs by cost, internet, fun and safety. Bhopal has a population of over 1,798,218 people. Bhopal also forms the centre of the wider Bhopal metropolitan area which has a population of over 2,390,000 people. It is also a part of the larger Madhya Pradesh state. Bhopal is ranked #609 for startups with a score of 0.267.

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

Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license | Nomad | StartupBlink

Antipodal to Bhopal is: -102.568,-23.247

Locations Near: Bhopal 77.4323,23.2474

🇮🇳 Vidisha 77.82,23.53 d: 50.5  

🇮🇳 Sagar 78.71,23.83 d: 145.5  

🇮🇳 Indore 75.865,22.716 d: 171  

🇮🇳 Amravati 77.759,20.91 d: 262.1  

🇮🇳 Ratlam 75.037,23.334 d: 244.8  

🇮🇳 Jhansi 78.57,25.449 d: 270.5  

🇮🇳 Kota 75.852,25.168 d: 267  

🇮🇳 Jabalpur 79.953,23.165 d: 257.8  

🇮🇳 Nagpur 79.109,21.15 d: 290.2  

🇮🇳 Bhusawal 75.77,21.05 d: 298.3  

Antipodal to: Bhopal -102.568,-23.247

🇵🇪 Callao -77.15,-12.067 d: 17055.8  

🇵🇪 Chimbote -78.583,-9.067 d: 17015.3  

🇵🇪 San Isidro -77.033,-12.083 d: 17045.5  

🇵🇪 Lima -77.033,-12.05 d: 17043.7  

🇵🇪 Ancón -77.15,-11.733 d: 17038  

🇵🇪 Villa El Salvador -77,-12.05 d: 17040.5  

🇵🇪 Trujillo -79.034,-8.103 d: 16993.3  

🇵🇪 Pisco -76.2,-13.717 d: 17045.6  

🇵🇪 Chiclayo -79.844,-6.764 d: 16972  

🇵🇪 Chincha Alta -76.133,-13.45 d: 17026.6  

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