Chaibasa is a small 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 West Singhbhum district in the state of

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in East India, eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Chaibasa is the district headquarters of West Singhbhum district. It is also the headquarter of Singhbhum Kolhan division headed by the

Divisional commissioner A Divisional Commissioner, also known as Commissioner of division, is an Indian Administrative Service officer who serves as the administrator of a division of a state in India. The post is referred to as regional commissioner in Karnataka ...

. It consists of the main city including Sadar Bazar, Garikhana, Bari Bazar, Amla Tola, Sentola,

Railway Station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

Area, JMP Chowk, Post Office Chowk and Gandhi Tola; and the surrounding suburbs and entry gates to the city including Tambo Chowk, Tungri, Khapparsai, Moholsai, Gutusai and Purana Chaibasa.

Geography

Chaibasa is located at . It has an average elevation of 222 metres. It is located 140 km south of state capital

Ranchi Ranchi (; ) is the capital city and also the largest district by population of the Indian state of Jharkhand. Ranchi was the centre of the Jharkhand movement, which called for a separate state for the tribal regions of South Bihar, northern ...

, 25 km from

Chakradharpur Chakradharpur is a municipal town situated in the West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand, India, positioned strategically on the Chota Nagpur Plateau. Located 62 kilometers west of Jamshedpur, 115 kilometers south of Ranchi, and 101 kilometers ea ...

, and 65 km from

Jamshedpur Jamshedpur (; ), also known as Tatanagar, is a major industrial city in eastern India. It is the List of cities in Jharkhand by population, largest city in the state of Jharkhand. With a population of 629,658 in the city limits and 1.3 million ...

Climate

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 ...

, Chaibasa had a population of 69,565. The total number of householders was 10596. The male population stood at 36273 and the female population at 33292 (with the sex ratio at 100%:91,8%). Chaibasa has an average literacy rate of 86.93%, higher than the national average of 59.5%, with male literacy rate of 91.60% and female literacy rate of 81.83%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 6.52% and 25.70% of the population respectively. 12% of the population is under 6 years of age. Due to its status as an industrial hub, Chaibasa is a very multilingual city.

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

(32.6%) and

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

(13.0%) are the most-spoken languages. Ho (12.6%) and Odia (8.9%) are the local languages. Other languages spoken in Chaibasa include Bengali,

Magahi Magahi (), also known as Magadhi (), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal states of eastern India, and in the Terai region of Nepal. Magadhi Prakrit was the ancestor of Magahi, from which the latter's name de ...

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri may refer to: * Bhojpuri language, an Indo-Aryan language of India and Nepal * Bhojpuri grammar, grammatical rules of the language * Bhojpuri nouns, nouns of the language * Bhojpuri people, people who speak the language * Bhojpuri region ...

, Marwari, Sadri, Maithili and Karmali language. Tribal languages spoken include Kurukh and Mundari..

Education

There are a number of schools up to 10th and 12th standards in Chaibasa, among the renowned are - Surajmull Jain D.A.V. Public School, Chaibasa which is considered the best school in West Singhbhum, followed by St. Xavier's English School, holding 4th rank in the district. Other known educational institutions are Mangillal Rungta middle and high school, St. Xavier's schools (some of which are in Lupungutu), SPG school and many others (

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

school, Navodaya Vidyalaya, Padmawati Jain Saraswati Sishu Vidya Mandir, the St. Mary's Public School in Gandhi Tola, the St. Viveka English Medium School, the Scott Hindi Girls School, S. S. A. Niche Tola School, and Zila School). There is also the Kolhan Inter College and the DPS Inter College. For higher education up to postgraduate degrees, Chaibasa has adequate colleges. The oldest and biggest one is Tata College, Chaibasa. Other two prominent colleges are G.C. Jain Commerce College and Mahila College. In 2009, Kolhan University was constituted with its head office at Chaibasa. In addition to the Chaibasa Engineering College, Chaibasa also boasts of a branch of the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) and the RAJ ITI.

Society (NGOs)

Both the Indian Red Cross Society and

Rotary International Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. The self-declared mission of Rotary, as stated on its website, is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and p ...

have their centers in the municipality.

Economy

Chaibasa is a district headquarters and constitutes all the Governmental offices of the district. Government Institutions are the chief employers of chaibasa. The cement manufacturer ACC Cement Works is situated in Jhinkpani, 18 km from Chaibasa, but relies on Chaibasa itself for daily needs. Substantial mining is done in the area by companies such as S.R. Rungta Group, Thakur Prasad Sao & Sons, Saha Brothers and Anil Khirwal. Many other small-scale steel manufacturing companies are situated in Chaibasa. Lfyd one of the biggest hyperlocal discovery startups of India founded by Satyajeet Patnayak & Dharam Chand Patnaik and currently backed by

NASSCOM {{Infobox organization , logo = Nasscom-logo-svg.svg , alt = NASSCOM , logo_caption = NASSCOM's New logo , formation = {{start date and age, 1988, 03, 01, df=y , extinction ...

is registered from Chaibasa. Chaibasa's proximity to

and

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

contributes to its small scale industrial scape. The most popular economic engines are mining, textiles and the service sector. Chaibasa not being directly on Howrah-Mumbai main line has hurt its economy quite a lot and all the railway jobs and related industries moved to

which is a smaller town near to it that lies on the main line.

Transportation

The best-connected place is

which is 60 km away from Chaibasa. The second best place is

, 25 km from Chaibasa on Howrah - Mumbai main line. There are two trains running from

which passes via Chaibasa. One more train is running from Howrah i.e. Howrah Barbil Jan Shatabdi Express passes via Chaibasa. In 2012, another train from Chakradharpur–Barbil Intercity Express had started passing through Chaibasa which was later extended to Rourkela Junction but had to be closed due to poor ridership. In 2014, another weekly train started from Visakhapatnam - Tatanagar Weekly Superfast Express which also passes through Chaibasa. Capital of

is 145 km away from Chaibasa. In early 2024, a new weekly train was inaugurated between Anand Vihar Terminal and

Puri Puri, also known as Jagannath Puri, () is a coastal city and a Nagar Palika, municipality in the state of Odisha in eastern India. It is the district headquarters of Puri district and is situated on the Bay of Bengal, south of the state ca ...

, passing through Chaibasa. This provided a direct train route to national capital

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

for the residents. In the latter half of the year, a new Vande Bharat Train route was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi running between Tatanagar and

Brahmapur Brahmapur may refer to the following places: * Brahmaloka, heavenly abode of the Hindu god Brahma * Brahmpur, Bihar, village in Bihar, India * Brahampur, Nepal, municipality ward in Dakneshwori, Nepal * Brahmapur, Odisha, city in Odisha, India * ...

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 ...

passing through Chaibasa. Chaibasa is a station on the southbound line to Orissa from Rajkharsawan Junction on the Tatanagar–Bilaspur section of Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line. The city does not have a public airport, with the nearest domestic airports being in the state capital

. While, the well connected international airports are at

and

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 ...

. There are small domestic airports situated close to Chaibasa, in

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 ...

and

but they only provide regular flights to Bhubaneswar and Kolkata. There is an abandoned airstrip in the outskirts of the city, last used back in the 1960s. Chaibasa is situated on the State Highway 5.

Hungry generation

The exponents of famous literary and cultural movement Bhookhi Peedhi or

Hungry generation The Hungry Generation () was a literary movement in the Bengali language launched by what is known today as the Hungryalist quartet, i.e. Shakti Chattopadhyay, Malay Roy Choudhury, Samir Roychoudhury and Debi Roy (''alias'' Haradhon Dhara), du ...

Samir Roychoudhury Samir Roychowdhury ( Bengali: সমীর রায়চৌধুরী) (1 November 1933 – 22 June 2016), one of the founding fathers of the Hungry Generation (also known as Hungryalism or Hungrealism (1961–1965)), was born at Panihat ...

resided in this town for several decades after the 1950s.

Filmography

Chaibasa has featured in the

Zee TV ZEE TV also known as Z TV is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched on 1 October 1992 as the oldest privately owned television channel in India. History ...

show Service Wali Bahu.

References

{{Authority control Cities and towns in West Singhbhum district