Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, also spelt as Bhubaneshwar i/ˌbʊbəˈneɪʃwər/ (Odia: ଭୁବନେଶ୍ଵର), is the capital of the Indian state of Odisha. It is the largest city in Odisha and is a centre of economic and religious importance in Eastern India.

Along with the old town, the region of Bhubaneswar, historically was often depicted as Ekamra Kshetra (ଏକାମ୍ର କ୍ଷେତ୍ର ). With the diverse ranges of heritage resources, it showcases significant sacred cultural landscape components which have evolved with the support of available natural resource base and cultural trigger.

Although the modern city of Bhubaneswar was formally established only in 1948, the history of the areas in and around the present-day city can be traced to 1st century BCE and earlier. With many 8th-12th century CE Hindu temples, which span the entire spectrum of Kalinga architecture, Bhubaneswar is often referred to as a "Temple City of India". With Puri and Konark it forms the Swarna Tribhuja ("Golden Triangle"), one of eastern India's most visited destinations.

Bhubaneswar replaced Cuttack as the capital on 19 August 1949, 2 years after India gained its independence from Britain. The modern city was designed by the German architect Otto Königsberger in 1946. Along with Jamshedpur and Chandigarh, it was one of modern India's first planned cities. Bhubaneswar and Cuttack are often referred to as the 'twin cities of Odisha'. The metropolitan area formed by the two cities had a population of 1.7 million in 2011. Bhubaneswar is categorised as a Tier-2 city. An emerging information technology (IT) and education hub, Bhubaneswar is one of the country's fastest-developing cities.

History

The foundation of the modern Bhubaneswar city was laid in 1948, although the areas in and around the city have a history going back to 1st century BCE or earlier.

Dhauli, near Bhubaneswar is the site of the Kalinga War (c. 262-261 BCE), in which the Mauryan emperor Ashoka invaded and annexed Kalinga. One of the most complete edicts of the Mauryan Emperor, Ashoka, dating from between 272–236 BCE, remains carved in rock 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) to the southwest of the modern city. After the decline of the Mauryan empire, the area came under the rule of Mahameghavahana dynasty, whose most well-known rule is Kharavela. His Hathigumpha inscription is located at the Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves near Bhubaneswar. The area was subsequently ruled by several dynasties, including Satavahanas, Guptas, Matharas, and Shailobhavas.

In 7th century, Somavamshi or Keshari dynasty established their kingdom in the area, and constructed a number of temples. After the Kesharis, the Eastern Gangas ruled Kalinga area until 14th century CE. Their capital Kalinganagar was located in present-day Bhubaneswar district. After them, Mukunda Deva of the Bhoi dynasty – the last Hindu ruler of the area until the Marathas – developed several religious buildings in the area. Most of the older temples in Bhubaneswar were built between 8th and 12th centuries, under Shaiva influence. The Ananta Vasudeva Temple is the only old temple of Vishnu in the city. In 1568, the Karrani dynasty of Afghan origin gained control of the area. During their reign, most of the temples and other structures were destroyed or disfigured.

In the 16th century, the area came under Mughal control. The Marathas, who succeeded the Mughals in mid-18th century, encouraged pilgrimage in the region. In 1803, the area came under British colonial rule, and was part of the Bengal Presidency (until 1912), Bihar and Orissa Province (1912-1936) and Orissa Province (1936-1947). The capital of the British-ruled Orissa Province was Cuttack, which was vulnerabile to floods and suffered from space constraints. Because of this, on 30 September 1946, a proposal to move the capital to a new capital was introduced in the Legislative Assembly of the Orissa Province. After independence of India, the foundation of the new capital was laid by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on 13 April 1948.

The name of the new capital came from "Tribhubaneswar" or "Bhubaneswar" (literally "Lord of the Earth"), a name of Shiva, the deity of the Lingaraja temple. The Legislative Assembly of Orissa was shifted from Cuttack to Bhubaneswar in 1949. Bhubaneswar was built as a modern city, designed by German architect Otto Königsberger with wide roads, gardens and parks. Though part of the city followed the plan, it grew rapidly over the next few decades, outstripping the planning process. According the first census of independent India, taken in 1951, the city's population was just 16,512. From 1952 to 1979, it was administered by a Notified Area Council or a nagar panchayat; a municipality was established only on 12 March 1979. By the 1991 census, the population of Bhubaneswar had increased to 411,542. Accordingly, on 14 August 1994, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation was established.

Geography

Bhubaneswar is in Khordha district of Odisha. It is in the eastern coastal plains, along the axis of the Eastern Ghats mountains. The city has an average altitude of 45 m (148 ft) above sea level. It lies southwest of the Mahanadi River that forms the northern boundary of Bhubaneswar metropolitan area, within its delta.

The city is bounded by the Daya River to the south and the Kuakhai River to the east; the Chandaka Wildlife Sanctuary and Nandankanan Zoo lie in the western and northern parts of Bhubaneswar, respectively.

Bhubaneswar is topographically divided into western uplands and eastern lowlands, with hillocks in the western and northern parts. Kanjia lake on the northern outskirts, affords rich biodiversity and is a wetland of national importance. Bhubaneswar's soils are 65 per cent laterite, 25 per cent alluvial and 10 per cent sandstone. The Bureau of Indian Standards places the city inside seismic zone III on a scale ranging from I to V in order of increasing susceptibility to earthquakes. The United Nations Development Programme reports that there is "very high damage risk" from winds and cyclones. The 1999 Odisha cyclone caused major damage to buildings, the city's infrastructure and cost many human lives. Floods and waterlogging in the low-lying areas have become common due to unplanned growth.

Urban structure

The Bhubaneswar urban development area consists of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation area, 173 revenue villages and two other municipalities spread over 393.57 square kilometres (151.96 sq mi). The area under the jurisdiction of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation covers 135 square kilometres (52 sq mi). The city is somewhat dumbbell-shaped with most of the growth taking place to the north, northeast and southwest. The north–south axis of the city is widest, at roughly 22.5 kilometres (14.0 mi). Growth in the east is restricted due to the presence of Kuakhai River and by the wildlife sanctuary in the northwestern part. The city can be broadly divided into the old town, planned city (or state capital), added areas and outer peripheral areas. It is subdivided into Units and Colonies.

The old town or "Temple Town", the oldest part of the city, is characterised by many temples, including the Lingaraj, Rajarani, and Muktesvara temples, standing alongside residential areas. This area is congested, with narrow roads and poor infrastructure. Among neighbourhoods in the old town are Rajarani Colony, Pandav Nagar, Brahmeswar Bagh, Lingaraj Nagar, Gouri Nagar, Bhimatanki and Kapileswar.

The planned city was designed in 1948 to house the capital. It is subdivided into units, each with a high school, shopping centres, dispensaries and play areas. While most of the units house government employees, Unit V houses the administrative buildings, including the State Secretariat, State Assembly, and the Raj Bhavan. Private residential areas were later built in other areas of the planned city, including Saheed Nagar and Satya Nagar. Unit I, popularly known as the Market Building, was formed to cater to the shopping needs of the new capital's residents. Later, markets and commercial establishments developed along the Janpath and Cuttack-Puri Road at Saheed Nagar, Satya Nagar, Bapuji Nagar and Ashok Nagar. A dedicated institutional area houses educational and research institutes, including Utkal University, the Institute of Physics, the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology and Sainik School. Indira Gandhi Park, Gandhi Park and the Biju Patnaik Park are located in the unit.

The added areas are mostly areas lying north of National Highway 5, including Nayapalli, Jayadev Vihar, Chandrasekharpur and Sailashree Vihar, which were developed by Bhubaneswar Development Authority to house the growing population.

The peripheral areas are outside the municipal boundary or have subsequently been included within the extended boundary, including Tomando, Patia and Raghunathpur. Most of these areas were developed in a haphazard manner, without proper planning.

Deras Dam

Bhubaneswar secured the top rank in the Smart city list in India.

Civic administration and utilities

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) oversees and manages civic infrastructure for the city's 67 wards. Residents of each ward elect a corporator to the BMC for a five-year term. Standing committees handle urban planning and maintain roads, government-aided schools, hospitals and municipal markets. As Bhubaneswar's apex body, the corporation discharges its functions through the mayor-in-council, which comprises a mayor, a deputy mayor and other elected members. The executive wing is headed by a Commissioner. BMC responsibilities include drainage and sewerage, sanitation, solid waste management and street lighting. As of 2014, the Biju Janata Dal party controlled the BMC; the mayor was Ananta Narayan Jena and deputy mayor was K. Shanti. The Bhubaneswar Development Authority is responsible for statutory planning and development and building regulation.

As the seat of the Government of Odisha, Bhubaneswar is home to the Odisha Legislative Assembly and the state secretariat. Bhubaneswar has lower courts: the Court of Small Causes and the District Civil Court decide civil matters; the Sessions Court rules in criminal cases. The Bhubaneswar–Cuttack Police Commissionerate, established in 2008, is a city police force with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation in the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack area. Shri Yogesh Bahadur Khurania is the police commissioner.

Citizens of Bhubaneswar elect one representative to India's lower house, the Lok Sabha, and three representatives to the state legislative assembly, through the constituencies of Bhubaneswar North, Ekamra-Bhubaneswar and Bhubaneswar Central.

Utilities

Electricity is supplied by the state-operated Central Electricity Supply Utility of Odisha, or CESU. Fire services are handled by the state agency Odisha Fire Service. Drinking water is sourced from the Mahanadi, Kuakhai and Daya rivers. Water supply and sewerage are handled by the Public Health Engineering Organisation. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, or BSNL, as well as private enterprises, among them Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, Reliance, Idea Cellular, Aircel, and Tata DoCoMo, are the leading telephone, cell phone and internet service providers in the city.

Transport

The headquarters of the Odisha State Road Transport Corporation (OSRTC) is in Bhubaneswar. The main Bhubaneswar inter-state bus terminus is at Barmunda, 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from the city centre, from where OSRTC and private operators run buses connecting Bhubaneswar to cities in Odisha and with the neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh. Bhubaneswar is connected to the rest of Odisha and India by National Highways-NH 5, which is a part of the Kolkata-Chennai prong of the Golden Quadrilateral, NH 203, State Highway 13 (Odisha) and State Highway 27 (Odisha). Asian Highway- AH45 passes through the city. Nowadays popular online cab or auto transport system provided by Jugnoo,Ola,uber are widely used.

Road

Bhubaneswar has wide roads in grid form in the central city. Bhubaneswar has approximately 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) of roads, with average road density of 11.82 square kilometres (4.56 sq mi). Baramunda bus stand is the major bus terminus in the city from where buses ply to all the districts in Odisha as well as to neighbouring state's cities like Hyderabad, Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Raipur and Ranchi. City bus service runs in public-private partnership between Bhubaneswar-Puri Transport Service Limited (BPTSL) and Dream Team Sahara (DTS) under JNNURM scheme. A fleet of 185 buses cover all major destinations including Cuttack, Puri and Khordha. Auto rickshaws are available for hire and on a share basis throughout the city. In parts of the city, cycle rickshaws offer short trips. To ease traffic jams, over-bridges at major road junctions and expansion of roads are under construction. In a study of six cities in India, Bhubaneswar was ranked third concerning pedestrian infrastructure. The city scored 50 points out of maximum 100. The government of Odisha introduced the much-awaited Bhubaneswar BRTS (bus rapid transit) in Bhubaneswar.

Rail

Station Name Station Code Railway Zone Total Platforms Bhubaneswar BBS East Coast Railway 6 Mancheswar MCS East Coast Railway 4 Lingaraj Temple Road LGTR East Coast Railway 3 Vani Vihar BNBH East Coast Railway 2 Patia PTAB East Coast Railway 2 New Bhubaneswar (U/C) BBSN East Coast Railway 7

The East Coast Railway has its headquarters in Bhubaneswar. Bhubaneswar railway station is one of the main stations of the Indian railway network. It is connected to major cities by daily express and passenger trains, but daily service to all metro cities is not available from here. For this the government is asking new trains for last consecutive years which is not getting sanctioned from the central government. However, the station is overloaded by existing traffic. Currently, the station has six platforms. There are plans to add two more platforms.

A satellite station (named New Bhubaneswar railway station) is under construction near Barang to decongest the existing one.

Air

Biju Patnaik International Airport, also known as Bhubaneswar Airport, 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) south of the city centre, is the major and sole international airport in Odisha. There are daily flights from Bhubaneswar to Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. The major carriers from Bhubaneswar are Indigo, Vistara, GoAir & Air India as on 2nd Sep, 2016. In March 2013, a new domestic terminal with a capacity of handling 30 million passengers per year was inaugurated to handle increased air traffic. On 10 July 2015, the first international flight took off from terminal 2 of Biju Patnaik International Airport.

Culture

Ram Mandir, Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar is supposed to have had over one thousand temples, earning the tag of the 'Temple City of India'. Temples are made in the Kalinga architectural style with a pine spire that curves up to a point over the sanctum housing the presiding deity and a pyramid-covered hall where people sit and pray.

Famous temples include Lingaraj Temple, Muktesvara Temple, Rajarani Temple, Ananta Vasudeva Temple.

The twin hills of Khandagiri & Udayagiri, served as the site of an ancient Jain monastery which was carved into cave-like chambers in the face of the hill. These caves, with artistic carvings, date back to the 2nd century BCE. Dhauli hills has major edicts of Ashoka engraved on a mass of rock and a white Peace Pagoda was built by the Japan Buddha Sangha and the Kalinga Nippon Buddha Sangha in the 1970s. Apart from the ancient temples, other important temples were built in recent times include Ram Mandir and ISKCON.

Bhubaneswar along with Cuttack is the home of the Oriya cinema industry, dubbed "Ollywood", where most of the state's film studios are. Odia culture survives in the form of Classical Odissi dance, handicrafts, sand artistry and sculpturing as well as theatre and music. Boundary walls and gardens are increasingly being redone to depict the folk art of the state. Odissi, the oldest of the eight surviving classical dance forms of India can be traced from archaeological evidence from the temples in Bhubaneswar.

Odissi dance is generally accompanied by Odissi music. Srjan, the Odissi dance academy founded by Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, the legendary Odissi dancer is found here. The Rabindra Mandap in central Bhubaneswar plays host to cultural engagements, theatre and private functions. As a part of the Ekamra Festival, many cultural sub-festivals takes place in January in Bhubaneswar which includes Kalinga Mahotsav (for traditional martial arts), Dhauli-Kalinga Mahotsav (for classical dance forms), Rajarani Music Festival (for classical music) and Mukteswar Dance Festival (for Odishi dance). Residents engage in khattis, or leisurely chats, that often take the form of freestyle intellectual conversation.

Though Oriya women traditionally wear the sari and the shalwar kameez, Western attire is gaining acceptance among younger women. Western-style dress has greater acceptance among men, although the traditional dhoti and kurta are seen during festivals.

The Odisha State Museum offers archaeological artefacts, weapons, local arts and crafts as well as insights into Odisha's natural and indigenous history. The Tribal Research Institute Museum hosts authentic tribal dwellings created by tribal craftsmen. Nandankanan Zoological Park, located on the northern outskirt of the city, is India's first zoo to join World Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The State Botanical Garden (Odisha) and Regional Plant Resource Center, popularly known as Ekamra Kanan, a park and botanical garden, has a large collection of exotic and regional fauna. The Ekamra Haat is a hand-loom and handicrafts market. Nicco Park and Ocean World are amusement parks. Other museums include Pathani Samanta Planetarium, Regional Museum of Natural History, Regional Science Center and State Handicrafts Museum.

Festivals

On the day of Ashokashtami in the month of March or April, the image of Lingaraja (Shiva) and other deities are taken in a procession from Lingaraja Temple to the Mausima Temple, where the deities remain for four days. Hundreds of devotees participate in pulling the temple car that carries the deities, known as Rukuna Rath. Ratha-Yatra, "Temple Car Festival," is the most important festival in Odisha and Bhubaneswar. The festival commemorates Jagannath, who is said to have been the incarnation of India's revered deities, Vishnu and Krishna. Durga Puja, held in September–October, is an occasion for glamorous celebrations.

Other festivals celebrated include Shivaratri, Diwali, Ganesh Puja, Nuakhai and Saraswati Puja. Eid and Christmas are celebrated by the religious minorities in the city.

Adivasi Mela is a fair that displays art, artefacts, tradition, culture, and music of the tribal inhabitants of Odisha is held in January. Toshali National Crafts Mela, held in December, showcases handicrafts from all over India and from foreign countries. Other important fairs in the city include the Rajdhani Book Fair and Khandagiri Utsav.

Cuisine

Key elements of the city's cuisine include rice and a fish curry known as machha jholo, which can be accompanied by desserts such as Rasagola, Rasabali, Chhena Gaja and Chhena Poda. Odisha's large repertoire of seafood dishes includes various preparations of lobsters and crabs brought in from Chilika Lake. Street foods such as Gupchup (a deep-fried crêpe with tamarind sauce), Cuttack-chaat, Dahi bara-Aloo dum and Bara-ghuguni are sold all over the city. Traditional Oriya food such as Dahi-Pakhal (rice soaked in water with yogurt and seasonings) is considered as a body coolant, accompanied by Badi chura or saga are consumed during months of April–June.

The Abadha of Lingaraj Temple and Ananta Vasudeva Temple served for devotees is considered a vegetarian culinary delight. Other vegetarian dishes are Dalma (made of lentils and vegetables boiled together and then fried with other spices) and Santula (lightly spiced steamed vegetables). Sweets play a large part in the diet of Bhubaneswarites—especially at their social ceremonies. Bhubaneswar is known for its kora-khhaii which are made up of paddy, jaggery and coconut pieces. Pitha, a kind of sweet cake, bread or dim sum are winter specialties.

Chhena Gaja, famous sweet of Odisha from Pahala, Bhubaneswar