Country India State Odisha | Language spoken Oriya District Jharsuguda | |
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Map of Brajarajnagar
Brajarajnagar is a town and a municipality in Jharsuguda district in the state of Odisha, India. It is famous for MCL-owned coal mines and now-defunct Orient Paper Mills of Birlas established in 1936.
Contents
- Map of Brajarajnagar
- History
- Geography
- Demographics
- Industry
- Road
- Railways
- Airport
- 2G 3G 4G Broadband
- Politics
- Education
- Festivals Observed
- Places of interest
- References
Most of the population in this city were working for Orient Paper Mills, which belonged to Birla Group of industries. Brajrajnagar has in its vicinity numerous open-cast and underground coal mines of IB Valley Coalfield and Orient Colliery Area belonging to government-owned Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL).
History
The Brajrajnagar Police Station was established in 1936, in the same year, when the Orient Paper Mills of Birlas was established here. The mill started functioning in 1939, leading to the growth of township around it, inhabited by the employees.
Eventually, Brajrajnagar became a Nagar Panchayat (Notified Area Council) (NAC) in 1968, and in 1989 it was made a Nagar Palika (Municipality), spread over an area of 42.73 km2. and includes seven revenue villages, Lamtibahal, Telenpali, Remja, Lajkura, Gandghora, Katabaga and Sanjob.
Local leaders like Mrutyunjaya Dash and Rajkumari Dash from Telenpali and comrades had put valiant efforts during the freedom struggle of India.
Geography
Brajarajnagar is located at 21.82°N 83.92°E / 21.82; 83.92. It has an average elevation of 216 metres (708 feet). Ib River, which is a tributary of Mahanadi river, flows to the east of the town.
Brajrajnagar vidhan sabha consists of vast area of Brajrajnagar, Belpahar, Bandhbahal, Gopalpur, Kanaktura border of Chhattisgarh. Moreover, Brajrajnagar forest range also has very large area which includes area in Remenda, Banharpali, Kudopali, Tilya, Sonari, Rajpur, Rampur, Loising, Barakhandia, Pathrapali, etc.
Demographics
As of 2001 India census, Brajarajnagar had a population of 76,941. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Brajarajnagar has an average literacy rate of 69%, higher than the national average of 59.5%; with male literacy of 77% and female literacy of 60%. 12% of the population is under 6 years of age.
Industry
Brajrajnagar had one large paper mill named Orient Paper Mills of Birlas which happens to be the oldest industry in the state of Odisha, having set up in the year 1936 and production being started in 1939. Though since 1999, the O.P.M of Brajrajnagar has been shut down. Since then, thousand of workers have either shifted to the O.P.M. at Amlai, Madhya Pradesh or are working at MCL Brajrajnagar.
The IB Valley Coal Area is also in Brajrajnagar and nearby areas. Prior to nationalization in the year 1973, three underground mines were operational in Brajrajnagar. Post nationalization, the IB valley Opencast Mines were opened from 1984 onwards. At present IB Valley Area consists of three Opencast Mines namely Lajkura Opencast mine, Samleswari Opencast mine and Lilari Opencast mine. And all the underground mines are operational in Orient Colliery Area.
National Aluminium Company Ltd, a government owned company, is planning to set up an Aluminium smelter plant and one of the largest power plant near the town.
Road
Brajarajnagar falls on National Highway 49 (NH 49) which connects Raipur, the state capital of Chhattisgarh to Chandikhole in Odisha. Many Private buses runs daily service to major cities of Odisha such as Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Rourkela and Sambalpur.
Railways
Brajrajnagar Railways Station (BRJN) is a station on the Tatanagar–Bilaspur section of Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line. It is managed by Bilaspur division of South East Central Railway. It serves as important loading point for various coal-mines located in this area of Odisha. Brajrajnagar railway station is well connected with trains from Howrah, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bhubaneswar and Ahmedabad. Jharsuguda which is 11 km away is connected from the rest of the country including Chennai and Bangalore. It has another railway station, IB which is 1.5 km away from Brajrajnagar.
Airport
The closest airports are the Swami Vivekananda Airport, Raipur (319 km), Birsa Munda Airport, Ranchi (351 km) and Biju Patnaik Airport, Bhubaneshwar (360 km).
In 2009, the Airports Authority of India decided to set-up the second domestic airport in the state of Odisha at Jharsuguda. After completion in 2012, Jharsuguda Airport became the nearest airport to reach Brajrajnagar (20 km). Air Odisha launched non-scheduled commercial flights between Rourkela, Jharsuguda and Bhubaneswar on 2 November 2012.
2G, 3G, 4G, Broadband
Brajrajnagar has Reliance Jio, BSNL, Airtel, Idea 4G services for fast Internet services as well as BSNL Broadband Internet services. There are various 3G, 2G service providers in brajrajnagar like Aircel, Airtel, BSNL, Reliance, Vodafone, Docomo, Idea and much more. BSNL landline also provides telephone services.
Politics
The current MLA from Brajarajnagar Assembly Constituency is Mrs. Radharani Panda of BJP, who won the seat in State elections of 2014 defeating the 3 time winner. Mr. Anup Kumar Sai of Indian National Congress. Mr. Keshba Chandra Sahu had won this seat in 1999 for 17 months and before him, Mr. Prasanna Kumar Panda of CPI had won this seat in 1995, 1990 and in 1985. Mr. Upendra Dikshit had won this seat as INC(I) candidate in 1980 and as INC candidate in 1977.
It was a part of Deogarh (Lok Sabha constituency), though now it is a part of Bargarh (Lok Sabha constituency), after a new Lok Sabha constituency was created after 2008 delimitation of parliamentary constituencies based on the recommendations of the Delimitation Commission of India in 2002. Dr P.K. Singh of BJD is currently the M.P. from Bargarh (Lok Sabha constituency).
Education
There are also other secondary schools.
Festivals Observed
Major festivals celebrated in the Brajrajnagar are: