Durgapur , is a city in the state of West Bengal, India, located about 160 km from Kolkata, in Burdwan District. It was a dream child of the great visionary Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, the second chief minister of the state. The well laid out industrial township, designed by Joseph Allen Stein and Benjamin Polk is home to one of the largest industrial units in the state, Durgapur Steel Plant, one of the integrated steel plants of Steel Authority of India Limited. Alloy Steels Plant of S.A.I.L. and Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (C.M.E.R.I.), a C.S.I.R. laboratory, are also here. Allied ICD Services Limited, the first operational inland port (ICD Durgapur) in Eastern India, is situated in Durgapur as well. There are four power plants Durgapur Projects Limited (D.P.L.), Durgapur Thermal Power Station, Damodar Valley Corporation & N.S.P.C.L.), and some chemical and engineering industries at Durgapur. Some metallurgical units have come up in recent years. The National Institute of Technology, Durgapur (earlier known as Durgapur Regional Engineering College) is one of the most prominent seats of the Indian Central Government’s Engineering and Technological Education.
Geography
Durgapur is in the Burdwan District of West Bengal, on the bank of the Damodar River, just before it enters the alluvial plains of Bengal. The topography is undulating. The coal-bearing area of the Raniganj coalfields lies just beyond Durgapur; some parts intrude into the area. The area was deeply forested till recent times, and some streaks of the original forests are still there.
Two mighty rivers border it on the north and the south. The Ajay River flows past unhindered in the north; the Damodar Riveron the south has two obstacles in its path – first one is the Anderson Weir at Randiha constructed in 1932 and the second one is the massive 692-metre long Durgapur Barrage at Durgapur, constructed in 1955 and controlled by Damodar Valley Corporation. Two rivulets, Singaran and Tamla, flow through the area and join the Damodar River. Two other rivulets, Kunur and Tumuni, join the Ajay River.
History
The name Durgapur has come from the name of Sri Durgamohan Chattopadhyay,and JALEO the Zamindar of Gopinathpur area of Durgapur and the erstwhile scion of the family of Chatterjees of Sagarbhanga area.Much of modern Durgapur is situated on the lands formerly owned by Zamindars like the Chatterjees of Sagarbhanga, the Mukherjees of Nadiha, Sri Radhanath Chattopadhyay of Gopalpur and the Zamindars of Bhiringi(presently a part of the area known as Benachity). The Mukherjees originally had been orthodox Smarta ritualists who prospered and established conjugal ties with the Chatterjees of Sagarbhanga.
The area was part of the Bardhaman Raj, who ruled on the basis of a firman from the Mughal emperor. Mir Kassem, then Nawab of Sube Bangala, ceded Bardhaman along withMedinipur and Chittagong to the East India Company in 1760 (three years after the Battle of Plassey), and the Bardhaman Raj continued to function under British tutelage.
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Source From :- Wikipedia
