Brajarajnagar
Brajrajnagar is a town and a municipality in Jharsuguda district in the state of Odisha, India. Popular legend says the town was named after Braj Mohan Birla after he setup Orient Paper Mills in 1936. It's a small sleepy town on rocky terrain, built on the banks of IB river, with temples mostly built by the Birlas. Later it became famous for MCL-owned coal mines after Orient Paper Mills of Birlas closed down in 1999. 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 km. and includes seven revenue  villages, Lamtibahal, Telenpali, Remja, Lajkura, Gandghora, Katabaga and Sanjob. Local leaders like Mrutyunjaya Dash, Deepak Kak and Rajkumari from Telenpali and comrades had put valiant efforts during the freedom struggle of India. Geography. Brajarajnagar is located at . 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. Brajrajnagar also has very large area which includes many villages like Remja, Telenpali, Khaliakani, Gandaghora, Khaliamal, Nuadihi, Gandhichowk, Badheikata, Barghat Quarter, Junenmunda, 9number, Lamtibahal, Mandalia, Hilltop colony, BhootBanglouw, GMcomplex, Minesrescue station, Sanjob, Badjob, Kusamunda, ESIchowk, Sargimal, Baghrachaka, Ainlapali, Amdarha, Baghiaberna, Balangibahal, Baliput, Barpali, Beleidhuda, Bhoimunda, Bundia, Chandnimal, Charbhati, Chelkuthi, Chichinda, Deogaon, Ghusuramunda, Gourmal, Kandakuda, Katapali, Kechhobahal, Koilaga, Kudopali, Loising, Madhupur, Naikdihi, Niktimal, Nuamunda, Rajpur, Rankata, Tharkaspur, Tileimal. Demographics. India census, Brajarajnagar had a population of 80,403. 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. TRL Krosaki Refractories Limited (Formerly Tata Refractories Limited, ) is  an Indian refractory company. It was established in 1958 in Belpahar, a city in Jharsuguda district of Odisha. It mainly produces basic, dolomite, high alumina, monolithics, silica, flow control products and tap hole clay refractories having a consolidated installed capacity of 304,760 tonnes per annum Transport. Road. Brajarajnagar falls on National Highway 49 (NH 49) which connects Bilaspur, of Chhattisgarh to Kharagpur in West Bengal. 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 Veer Surendra Sai Airport, Jharsuguda (15 km),Bilasa Devi Kenvat Airport, Bilaspur (219 km), Swami Vivekananda Airport, Raipur (319  km), Birsa Munda Airport, Ranchi (351 km) and Biju Patnaik International Airport, Bhubaneswar (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. Communication and Internet. 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 Mr. Kishor Kumar Mohanty of BJD, who won the seat in State elections of 2019 defeating Mrs.Radha Rani Panda of Bhartiya Janta Party. Mr Anup Kumar Sai is three times MLA in Brajraj Nagar assembly constituency from 2001to2014 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. Mr.Suresh Pujari of BJP is currently the M.P. from Bargarh (Lok Sabha constituency). There are also other secondary schools. Festivals observed. Major festivals celebrated in the Brajrajnagar are