Durgapur, India

DURGAPUR is located in the district of Burdwan, in the state West Bengal, India, 168 km to the north of Calcutta. It is a well-planned strial city on the banks of the river Damodar, with a population of about 250,000. It was founded by in the late fifties, by the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy. A close confidant and personal physician of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, .C.Roy was the visionary who changed the face of post independence West Bengal. After the partition and the refuge influx of 1947, est Bengal was in a economically bad shape. Dr. Roy took to improve the condition, by founding a series of industrial satellite towns. The most minent among them are Durgapur(steel and ancillary industries), Haldia (port and petrochemicals), Dankuni (oil refineries), Haringhata (dairy), rnpur (steel), Chittaranjan (locomotive works), Kharagpur (IIT).Durgapur is located, as mentioned above, in the district of urdwan. It lies on the ain railway line connecting Calcutta and New Delhi, thus being extremely well connected to both of the above cities. It takes about 2.5 hours y express train to reach Calcutta and an overnight journey to reach Delhi. The G.T.Road (National Highway #2) passes through the middle of the city. One airport is under construction near Steel City, B-zone. It is located very close to India's biggest coalfields in the Ranigunj-Dhanbad area. The Durgapur Barrage over the river Damodar provides the water necessary for the many industries and also for drinking. Its surrounding area is very fertile and is one of the biggest producers of rice in the country.