Bhubaneswar replaced Cuttack as the capital on 19 August 1949, 2 years after India gained its independence from Britain.
Notably, the capital of the then British-ruled Orissa Province was Cuttack, which was vulnerabile to floods and suffered from space constraints. Thus on 30 September 1946, a proposal to move the capital to a new capital was introduced in the Legislative Assembly of the Orissa Province. After the Independence of India, the foundation of the new capital was laid by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on 13 April 1948.
Accordingly, Bhubaneswar replaced Cuttack as the capital on 19 August 1949, 2 years after India gained its independence from the British Raj.
The modern city, now with a smart city tag since 2016, was designed by the German architect Otto Königsberger in 1946. Along with Jamshedpur and Chandigarh, it was one of modern India’s first planned cities.
Bhubaneswar and Cuttack are often referred to ‘Twin Cities of Odisha’. The metropolitan area formed by the two cities had a population of 1.7 million in 2011.
Bhubaneswar is categorised as a Tier-2 city. An emerging information technology (IT) and education hub, Bhubaneswar is one of the country’s fastest-developing cities.
Picture Credit : Google
