Bhubaneswar City
Bhubaneswar is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Odisha. The city has a long history of over 2000 years starting with Chedi dynasty (around 2nd century BC) who had Sisupalgarh near present-day Bhubaneswar as their capital. Historically Bhubaneswar has been known by different names such as Toshali, Kalinga Nagari, Nagar Kalinga, Ekamra Kanan, Ekamra Khetra and Mandira Malini Nagari. The largest city of Odisha, Bhubaneswar today is a center of economic and religious importance in the region.
Its proud possession of magnificent sculptures and architectural heritage, coupled with the sanctity as Ekamrakshetra make this one of the great religious centres of Odisha since early medieval days.[1] With its large number of Hindu temples (over 600 in number), which span the entire spectrum of Kalinga architecture, Bhubaneswar is often referred to as a Temple City of India. Together with Puri and Konark and, Bhubaneswar forms the 'Swarna Tribhuja' (the 'Golden Triangle'), one of the most visited destinations in East India.
The modern city of Bhubaneswar was designed by the German architect Otto Königsberger in 1946. It is one of the cleanest and planned city of Modern India, after Chandigarh. The city is surrounded by dense canopy of forests, picturesque Chandaka and the Nandankanan; this along with an abundance of in-city greenery and an efficient civic body (the BMC) makes it one of the cleanest and greenest city of India today.
Bhubaneswar replaced Cuttack as the political capital of the state of Odisha in 1948, a year after India gained its independence from Britain. Bhubaneswar and Cuttack are together known as the "twin cities" of Odisha. The metropolitan area formed by the twin cities has a 2008 population of 1.9 million[2] and The World gazetteer[3] estimates the metro area population as 1,666,429 making it the 22nd largest urban centre in the country. Bhubaneswar comes under the category of tier 2 cities of India. It is an emerging IT hub and one of the fastest developing cities of India in recent years.
