Barbil is a city and a Municipality in the Kendujhar district of the state of Odisha, India. It is one of the firth scheduled areas. The region around Barbil has a largest deposit of iron ore and manganese ore in the world. It is a major source of revenue generation for both the Central and the State government.
Geography
Barbil is located at. It has an average elevation of. Barbil is fully surrounded by hills.
Climate
Demographics
According to the 2011 India census, Barbil had a population of 66,540. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Barbil has an average literacy rate of 72.18%. 16% of the population is under 6 years of age. An additional 50,000 people come to Barbil for work.
Languages
As the Barbil area has been dominated by Ho people, local tribal people widely speak in the Ho language as their mode of communication. Most people can speak, write all three languages Odia, Hindi & English.
Industry
Barbil is an industrialised town with a number of steel plants, iron ore pellet plants, ore crushers and mines. The area is very rich in iron and manganese ore. The latest demand is for iron ore fines. Nowadays the mines cannot meet up to the demand from the area. The iron ore which is benefited is also exported to China. This town also has Steel manufacturing, Iron ore pellet manufacturer and liquid oxygen production. It remains to be seen how the government's directive increasing the cost of export of raw iron ore will effect the economy of Barbil. Some Government-run Industries have closed after incurring losses.
Transport
under Chakradharpur division is on a by line in the Tatanagar–Bilaspur section of the Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line Connecting the main line at Rajkharshavan station which is about 100 km from Barbil. Barbil is connected to Howrah, Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar, Puri and Tatanagar Jamshedpur by train. Jan Shatabdi Express runs from Howrah to Barbil and one passenger train from Tatanagar to Barbil. Barbil is also connected to Bhubaneshwar & Puri by a daily-running Intercity Express train. Barbil-Chakradharpur Intercity Express via Dongoaposi, Jhinkpani Chaibasa at Chakradharpur one can extend the journey to Rourkela or even Sambalpur Vizag Chennai Alleppy etc. towards south and Bilaspur Nagpur Mumbai towards West and also via Keonjhar Kendujhar. Jajpur road, Cuttack Bhubaneshwar for connecting trains. . Barbil is also connected to Kolkata, Kendujhar and Bhubaneshwar by road. Prior to January 2008, there was air service from Barbil. However, international & local flights can be connected via Netaji Subhas Airport, and also from Biju Patnaik Airport Bhubaneshwar. The Airstrip at Barbil can be used for private and Chartered flights. Barbil has multiple hotels, like Padma Inn, Hotel Prateek, Hotel Smita, Lucky India, Aadhar Hotel, Hotel Karrow, Hotel Indrapuri and The World pinaca.
Social activities
Bikash Mahal is the pavilion where all the social, cultural and national day events are organised. There are many organizations in Barbil, like Barbil Haalchal, 'Native Voice', Prayaas, Niladri, Sambad Sahitya Ghara, Seva Group, Marwadi Yuva Manch, Sahistya Sansada, Gurudwara Singh Sabha Barbil, BVP, N.D.C.C and YBCC who carry out different social events in the town.
Health
The air of Barbil is laden with dust due to mining activities and passage of mineral-laden trucks in the night through the town as no bypass roads for heavy vehicles are being constructed by the government. "People with a dust allergy are advised care before coming here". In 2016 a Dengue fever outbreak broke out. A hundred people were affected and many of them died.
