Byasanagar or Vyasanagar is a town and a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in Jajapur district in the state of

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

, India. It is also colloquially known as Jajpur Road. It is home to an industrial belt and hosts several steel manufacturing companies, including Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited, MESCO, Tata Steel, and Jindal Steel. According to district officials, there are around 14 major companies and several small companies in the vicinity of the town. The town is also home to some eminent people in Odisha, including P. C. Ghadei (Ex-Finance Minister), the late Ashok Das (earlier MLA), Ram Chandra Khuntia (Congress), political leader Giridhari Barik (BJD), Priti Ranjan Ghadei (MLA), actor Akash Dasnayak, his actress aunt Anita Dash, and actress Naina Das. It is part of the Korei

Vidhan Sabha The State Legislative Assembly, also known as the Vidhan Sabha or the Saasana Sabha, is a legislative body in each of the states and certain union territories of India. Members of the legislative assembly are often directly elected to serve fiv ...

constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

History

The town developed around the railway station on Howrah Puri Line. At that time it was the nearest rail head for the two towns Jajpur and Keonjhar. That is how the station came to be known as Jajpur Keonjhar Road. The municipality was established in 1963. It celebrated its golden jubilee in 2013.

Demographics

India

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, Byasanagar had a population of 37,609. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Byasanagar has an average literacy rate of 80%, higher than the national average of 59.5%; with male literacy of 79% and female literacy of 66%; 11% of the population is under 6 years of age. It is one of the fastest growing city in terms of industries.

Transportation

The railway station is the Jajpur Keonjhar Road Railway Station which falls on the Howrah-Chennai main line and is the only major stop between Bhadrak and

Cuttack Cuttack (, or officially Kataka in Odia language, Odia ), is the former capital, deputy capital and the 2nd largest city of the Indian state of Odisha. It is also the headquarters of the Cuttack district. The name of the city is an anglicised f ...

. The town is also only about from the National Highway 5. Various bus services connect Byasanagar to

Bhubaneswar Bhubaneswar () is the capital and the largest city of the States and territories of India, Indian state of Odisha. It is located in the Khordha district. The suburban region, especially the old town, was historically often depicted as ''Chakra ...

via Cuttack,

Rourkela Rourkela () is a planned city located in the northern district Sundargarh of Odisha, India. It is the third-largest Urban Agglomeration in Odisha after Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. It is situated about west of the state capital Bhubaneswar and is ...

via

Keonjhar Kendujhar, also known as Keonjhar, is a town with municipality in Kendujhar District in the Indian state of Odisha. It is the administrative headquarters of the Kendujhar district, and it is one of the fifth scheduled areas of Odisha ...

, and

Balasore Balasore, also known as Baleswar, is a city in the state of Odisha, about from the state capital Bhubaneswar and from Kolkata, in eastern India. It is the administrative headquarters of Balasore district and the largest city as well as heal ...

via Bhadrak. The nearest airport is Biju Patnaik International Airport at Bhubaneswar, the state capital.

Culture

The mythological Vyasa Sarovara is located here. It hosts an 11-day fair in celebration of Lord

Vyasadeva Vyasa (; , ) or Veda Vyasa (, ), also known as Krishna Dvaipayana Veda Vyasa (, ''Vedavyāsa''), is a ''rishi'' (sage) with a prominent role in most Hindu traditions. He is traditionally regarded as the author of the epic Mahābhārata, wh ...

in the month of March.

Industry

Ferrochrome Plant was initially commissioned in November 1969 as a division of IDCOL with an installed manufacturing capacity of 12,000 MT p.a. of High Carbon Ferro Chrome (HCFC) with reduction furnace. Subsequently, additional capacity of 10,000 MT p.a. of Low Carbon Ferro Chrome (LCFC) with slag furnace was created in October 1970. However, due to entry of relatively cheaper South African ferrochrome and general slow down in the demand of LCFC, IDCOL decided to stop the production of LCFC and with minor modifications, converted its slag furnace into reduction furnace in July 1998, so as to produce an additional 6,000 MT p.a. of HCFC. With this, the total installed capacity of the HCFC stood at 18,000 MT p.a. The current installed capacity is 19,000 MT p.a. The rated capacity of the furnaces are 9 MVA and 6.5 MVA. The plant was taken over by IFCAL in April, 2002. The operations at the Ferrochrome plant include mining of chrome ore from open cast mines, beneficiation of ore and smelting. The production process involves reduction of chromium oxide to

chromium Chromium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in Group 6 element, group 6. It is a steely-grey, Luster (mineralogy), lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium ...

electric arc furnace An electric arc furnace (EAF) is a Industrial furnace, furnace that heats material by means of an electric arc. Industrial arc furnaces range in size from small units of approximately one-tonne capacity (used in foundry, foundries for producin ...

to produce HCFC by further reduction of the metallic oxide with the help of carbon. The plant is located at Jajpur Road in the district of Jajpur, Odisha, and is about 12 km from NH-5 connecting Bhubaneswar and Kolkata. The nearest railway station is Jajpur Keonjhar Road Railway Station which is about 2 km away from the plant and the nearest airport is Bhubaneswar (also the State Capital) about 120 km from the plant.

References

Cities and towns in Jajpur district {{Jajapur-geo-stub