Choudwar (ଚୌଦ୍ଵାର) is a city and a municipality in
Cuttack district in the state of
Orissa,
India. Choudwar is located on the banks of the river Mahanadi, on National Highway 42. Choudwar has the unique distinction of being an industrialzone in Orissa state. The principal language spoken here is Oriya.
Economy:
Some of the current and former industrial employers in the town are:
- Libra Carpets
- Orissa Textile Mills (OTM)
- Aviation Research Centre (ARC)
- Indian Charge Chrome Ltd (ICCL)
- Ballarpur Paper Industries Limited (BILT)
The Libra Carpets organization was functional until early the early 1990s as an EOU (Export-Oriented Unit). Plans are currently underway to revive the organization. After being functional for more than three decades, Orissa Textile Mills had to shut down its operations owing to mishandling of company funds by the higher management. It was an Orissa state government-owned company. With a work force of over 3000, OTM was effective in providing clothing for much of India and it garnered several awards. Now, though it had been shut down for a decade, some officials still reside in company-provided quarters. Spread across a wide area towards one end of the town is the ARC, where a part of the central government engages in aviation research and development activities.
With Kalinga tubes winding up its production units at Choudwar in the early 1980s, Dr. Bansidhar Panda, a prominent industrialist, had taken over the equipment to recreate the current ICCL (established in 1983) as a unit of Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys (IMFA). The Industry here is responsible for the production of Charge Chrome. At Choudwar, ICCL has an independent 108 MW coal-based Captive Power Plant unit to meet the power requirements of the two industries. ICCL sprang up as a 100% EOU and has kept with the times in achieving the requisite ISO 9001:2000 certifications. 26 November every year is celebrated as Foundation Day, which is the Birthday of the Founder chairman. ICCL has now been merged with IMFA, and the establishment is now Choudwar Division of IMFA Ltd.
Festivities:
The state of Orissa is famous for festivals over the entire year. Some examples are Rath Yatra, Dola purnima, Chadakai, Saraswati puja, Vishwakarma puja apart from Diwali, Dusshera (Commonly known as Dusshera jatra), and Laxmi puja.
Socio-Economic Conditions:
A major cross-section of the society is the employees of the organizations. The closure of OTM and Libra carpets in the nineties was very much apparent across the all sections of the society as there was a sudden fall in purchasing capacity of the area. The other segments of society comprise teachers, staff of the local administration (municipality office), and doctors. A very small segment depends on agriculture.
Transportation:
- The town, being a part of the NH-5, is well-connected to the rest of the state by road. Buses going between Bhubaneswar and Sambalpur or Anugul move via Choudwar.
- The nearest railway station is Cuttack, which is 15 km away from Choudwar town, while the capital city Bhubaneswar railway station is 42 km away.
- The nearest airport is the national airport at Bhubaneswar. The Choudwar town is about 55 km from Bhubaneswar airport.
