Choudwar

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Choudwar v • d • e Orissa • India
District(s)	Cuttack
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
Population	42,597 (2001)

Coordinates: ° N ° E

Choudwar is a city and a municipality in Cuttack district in the state of Orissa, India.

1 Geography
2 History
3 Education
4 Economy
5 Demographics
6 Festivities
7 Socio-economic Conditions
8 Transportation
9 External links
10 See also

[edit] Geography

Choudwar is located on the banks of the river Mahanadi, on National Highway 42. Choudwar has the unique distinction of being an industrially significant zone in Orissa state. The principal language spoken here is Oriya. The STD Code of Choudwar is 0671, same as that of Cuttack, while the postal pincode is 754071 / 72

[edit] History

Choudwar once served as the capital for the Somakuli Keshari Kings of Orissa. Eight prominent Siva pithas were established by the Keshari dynasty in the vicinity of Choudwar, which are now in ruins. Tradition holds that it was the capital for Virat, the brother-in-law of Kichaka. Additionally, the five Pandava brothers, with their consort Draupadi, took shelter in Choudwar in their secret exile.

[edit] Education

There are several schools which have been educating students according to the guidelines of the government of Orissa:

Affiliated with Board of Secondary Education, Government of Orissa
- Kalinga public school is an English Medium School
- Kalinga Vidyapitha is an Oriya Medium School
- OTM School is an Oriya medium School
Affiliated with CBSE, New Delhi
- Kendriya Vidyalaya, Charbatia is an English/Hindi Medium school and has 11 and 12 standards also

The region also has two regular colleges and one Textile Engineering College:

Choudwar College, in affiliation with Utkal University, gives Bachelor-level courses in science, arts, and commerce. It also provides undergraduate courses in accordance with the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) in the three domains. It is a co-educational institution.
Choudwar Women’s College, which currently imparts only +2 level education.
The Textile Technology Institute awards B.Tech degrees in textile engineering.One can contact Sweta Das, a 4th Year Engineering Graduate for detail information regarding the Institute.

[edit] Economy

Some of the current and former industrial employers in the town are

Libra Carpets
Orissa Textile Mills (OTM)
Aviation Research Centre (ARC)
Indian Charge Chrome Ltd (ICCL)
Ballarpur Paper Industries Limited (BILT)

The Libra Carpets organization was functional until early the early 1990s as an EOU (Export-Oriented Unit). Plans are currently underway to revive the organization.

After being functional for more than three decades, Orissa Textile Mills had to shut down its operations owing to mishandling of company funds. It was an Orissa state government-owned company. With a work force of over 500, OTM was effective in providing clothing for much of India and it garnered several awards. Now, though production is drastically down, some officials still reside in company-provided quarters.

Spread across a wide area towards one end of the town is the ARC, where a part of the central government engages in aviation research and development activities.

With Kalinga tubes winding up its production units at Choudwar in the early 1980s, Dr. Bansidhar Panda, a prominent industrialist, had taken over the equipment to recreate the current ICCL (established in 1983) as a unit of Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys (IMFA). The Industry here is responsible for the production of Charge Chrome. At Choudwar, ICCL has an independent 108 MW coal-based Captive Power Plant unit to meet the power requirements of the two industries. ICCL sprang up as a 100% EOU and has kept with the times in achieving the requisite ISO 9001:2000 certifications. November 26 every year is celebrated as Foundation Day, which is the Birthday of the Founder chairman.ICCL has now been merged with IMFA, and the establishment is now Choudwar Division of IMFA Ltd.

The BILT began functioning in the late 1990s as a unit of Ballarpur Industries Ltd.

[edit] Demographics

As of 2001 India census^GRIndia, Choudwar had a population of 42,597. Males constitute 54% of the population and females 46%. Choudwar has an average literacy rate of 77%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 83% and, female literacy is 71%. In Choudwar, 10% of the population is under 6 years of age.

[edit] Festivities

The state of Orissa is famous for festivals over the entire year. Some examples are Rath Yatra, Dola purnima, Chadakai, Saraswati puja, Vishwakarma puja apart from Diwali, Dusshera, and Laxmi puja.

[edit] Socio-economic Conditions

A major cross-section of the society is the employees of the organizations. The closure of OTM and Libra carpets in the nineties was very much apparent across the all sections of the society as there was a sudden fall in purchasing capacity of the area. The other segments of society comprise teachers, staff of the local administration (municipality office), and doctors. A very small segment depends on agriculture.

[edit] Transportation

The town, being a part of the NH-5, is well-connected to the rest of the state by road. Buses going between Bhubaneswar and Sambalpur or Anugul move via Choudwar.

The nearest railway station is Cuttack, which is 15 km away from Choudwar town, while the capital city Bhubaneswar railway station is 42 km away.

The nearest airport is the national airport at Bhubaneswar. The Choudwar town is about 55 km from Bhubaneswar airport.