Dhanbad


Dhanbad is the second most populous city in the Indian state of Jharkhand. Dhanbad ranks 33rd largest city in India and ranks 42nd largest million-plus urban agglomeration in India. It has been ranked 94th among 111 cities for Ease of Living Index and is 96th fastest growing urban area of world by City Mayors. Dhanbad shares its land borders with Paschim Bardhaman, West Bengal. Dhanbad is also called Coal Capital of India for housing one of the largest coal mines of India. The prestigious institute, Indian School of Mines is also situated in Dhanbad.
Dhanbad is 56th cleanest city of India according to Swachh Survekshan 2019. It showed a great change in terms of cleanliness which was considered as least cleanest in Swachh Survekshan 2018 snd Dhanbad Municipal Corp. also worked for increasing more green cover in city. Among the rail divisions of Indian Railway, Dhanbad Rail Division is the second-largest in revenue generation after the Mumbai division.
Dhanbad ranked as top city in India with the highest 4G availability in India by a survey of Opensignal.

History

The present district used to be a part of Manbhum region and was occupied by Mundari tribals in the wilderness of South undivided Bihar. In the seventh century A.D. some information is available from the account of the travels of Hieun Tsang. These accounts narrate existence of a powerful kingdom which comprised the district and adjoining areas, ruled by Sasanka.
Manbhum was one of the districts of the East India during the British Raj. The region has thick forests, with rich mineral resources, and had a mixed demographic profile with people from different religious and social groups, including adivasis, particularly the Santals and the Mundas before the city was established. After India's independence, the district became a part of Bihar state, and upon re-organization of the Indian states in the mid-1950s, the district became a part of the West Bengal. Present Purulia district was carved out of the district of Manbhum.
In the Settlement Report for Manbhum it was stated that no rock inscriptions, copper plates or old coins were discovered and not a single document of copper plate or palm leaf was found, during the Survey and Settlement operations. The oldest authentic documents produced were all on paper and barely even a hundred years old.
Dhanbad city was in Manbhum district from 1928 up to 1956. However, on 24 October 1956, Dhanbad was declared a District on the Recommendation of the States Reorganization Commission vide notification 1911. This was done under the strong commitment and leadership from a renowned journalist Mr. Satish Chandra. In the year 2006, Dhanbad celebrated 50 years of being an independent District and city. From 1956 to 14 November 2000 it was under Bihar. At present it is in Jharkhand, after the creation of state on 15 November 2000.
In 21st Century discovery of rich deposits of coal in the region caused the city to flourish with wealth but also bought notorious coal-mafia and gang wars which continues to this day with areas of city like Wasseypur being most affected by the conflict.

Geography and climate

Dhanbad has an average elevation of. Its geographical length is and the breadth is. It shares its boundaries with West Bengal in the eastern and southern part, Dumka and Giridih in the North and Bokaro in the west. Dhanbad comes under the Chota Nagpur Plateau.
Dhanbad features climate that is transitional between a humid subtropical climate and a tropical wet and dry climate. Summer starts from last week of March and ends in mid-June. Peak temperature in summer can reach 48 °C. Dhanbad also receives heavy rainfall. In winter, the minimum temperature remains around 10 °C with a maximum of 22 °C.
Damodar River is the main river flowing through the district. Katri, Jamunia, Gobai, Khudia and Irji are the other rivers flowing through the district.

Demography

, Dhanbad City had a population of 1,162,472. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. It has a sex ratio of 891. Dhanbad has an average literacy rate of 79.47%, higher than the national average of 74.04%: male literacy is 86.14% and female literacy is 71.96%. In Dhanbad, 10.57% of the population is under 5 years of age.

Religion

is the dominant religion with over 81% adherents. The minority religions are Islam, Sikhism and Christianity.

Economy

Dhanbad have one of the oldest markets of region and is also a hotbed of large scale industries. It is famous for its coal mines and industrial establishments; the city is surrounded by about 112 coal mines with a total production of 27.5 million tonnes and an annual income of 7000 million rupees through coal business. There are a number of coal washeries present there.
BCCL have its headquarter in Dhanbad and SAIL, Tata Steel and Eastern Coalfields also operates their mines. Om Besco Rail Products.Ltd, a public limited rail wagon manufacturing company at Mugma, Hindustan Zinc Ltd had a lead smelting pilot plant at Tundu, Maithon Power.Ltda J.V of Tata Power & DVC, Hindusthan Malleables & Forgings Ltd,etc. are also operational in and around areas of Dhanbad.
Fertilizers Corporation of India, Projects & Development India.Ltd and ACC.Ltd at Sindri are also available and being one of the 5 divisions of South Eastern Railway zone, Indian Railways is also a big employer in Dhanbad. Also, Kandra Industrial Area at Gobindpur houses some small & middle scale industries.

Education

Universities and colleges

Dhanbad city and district is considered a BJP stronghold with majority of its MPs MLA's being of the party since the 1990s. Chandra Shekhar Agrawal of BJP is the mayor, otherwise known as the first citizen, of Dhanbad Municipal Corporation. He won by the margin of 42,525 votes.
Raj Sinha of BJP won in the 40-Dhanbad assembly constituency defeating Mannan Malick of Congress in 2014. Pashupati Nath Singh of BJP defeated Mannan Mallik of Congress in 2005, Prasadi Sao of RJD in 2000, and Ramadhar Yadav of JD in 1995. Surendra Prasad Roy of Congress defeated S.K. Shriva of JD in 1990 and Ram Chander Singh of Janata Party in 1985. Yogeshwar Prasad Yogesh of Congress defeated Gopi Kant Bakshi of CPI in 1980 and Kalawati Devi of Janata Party.
Dhanbad assembly constituency is part of Dhanbad.

Members of Parliament for Dhanbad

Transport

Rail

Dhanbad has a very good rail connectivity with the other major parts of the country such as Delhi, Mumbai, Patna, Kolkata, Bhagalpur, Munger, Gaya, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Kochi, Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Visakhapatnam Jodhpur, Nagpur, Pune, Varanasi, Guwahati etc. Dhanbad Rail Division comes under East Central Railway zone. Grand Chord rail-line passes through Dhanbad junction, it connects Howrah and New Delhi. CIC rail line starts from Dhanbad and ends at Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh. There is one more rail line passing through the district, it starts at Kharagpur and ends at Gomoh, this rail line comes under South Eastern Railway. Dhanbad is connected with almost all states through rail network. Each and every train through this has a stop at Dhanbad. Now, even Sealdah and Howrah Duronto have their stoppage at Dhanbad.
On 1 October 2011, India's first AC double-decker train was flagged off to connect Howrah and Dhanbad. With this India joins the league of Europe and North America that run multi-deck trains. As of October 2011, the train runs daily except Sunday, departing from Howrah at 8:30 am to arrive at Dhanbad at 12:45 pm, and on return trip it departs Dhanbad at 6:30 pm to arrive at Howrah at 10:40 pm. It has a maximum permissible speed of /hr with stops at Bardhaman, Durgapur, Asansol, Barakar and Kumardhubi on both legs of the route. This new AC design has several features namely stainless steel body, high-speed Eurofima design bogies with air springs and other safety-features.

Roads

and National Highway 18 are the major highways passing through Dhanbad. NH 19 is part of Golden Quadrilateral highway network; Dhanbad lies in Kolkata-Delhi link of the Golden Quadrilateral network. NH19 is being converted into six lane expressway; NH 18 connects Dhanbad to Bokaro-Jamshedpur.
Private and State buses are available for inter-city traveling.

Air

is used for private small aircraft and helicopters, currently there is no public air-link at the airport. The nearest public airports to Dhanbad are
  1. Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport, Asansol-Durgapur
  2. Birsa Munda Airport, Ranchi
  3. Gaya Airport
  4. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata
  5. Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Airport, Patna

    Sports

is the most popular sport in Dhanbad, followed by Football. Dhanbad is one of the centres where 34th National Games was organised. Cricket Stadiums at present are at Tata Steel Stadium Digwadih, Nehru Stadium Jealgora and Railway Stadium where Ranji Trophy matches are organised. Women's International Cricket were also played at Railway Stadium. Football matches of national level were played at Railway Stadium but now it is converted into Cricket Stadium by the Railway management and Sijua Stadium.
For the preparation of Mission Olympic 2020 and 2024, the Dhanbad District Olympic Games Association is working day and night.
Dhanbad officially became the second town in the state to boast a cricket stadium with floodlights, with the inauguration of floodlights at Tata Digwadih Stadium.

Media

newspapers are mainly published from the city, among them Hindustan Dainik is the most popular, followed by Prabhat Khabar, Dainik Jagran and Dainik Bhaskar. "Dhanbad Bokaro Live" is published from Dhanbad.
Doordarshan relay station is present in Dhanbad near Koyla Nagar. There are some local news channels in the city such as, Antarkatha which are creative media houses which broadcast on local cable on Dhanbad, Jharia, Bokaro, Chatra, Hazaribag, Kodrma, Ramgarh etc.
FM radio is available as Vividh Bharti Service of All India Radio at 101.8 MHz.

Rivers

The Damodar is a major river of the Chota Nagpur Plateau. It rises in Palamu and flows eastward between the plateaus of Ranchi and Hazaribag. It is joined by the Bokaro, the Konar and the Barakar rivers. The Damodar enters Dhanbad district at its confluence with the Jamuria, a stream which marks the western boundary of Dhanbad with Hazaribagh District. Further east, the Damodar is joined by the Katri River which rises in the foothills below Parasnath and traverses through the Coal-field Area.
The Barakar, which forms the northern boundary of the district, traverses about 77 km. In the district. It flows in south westerly direction up to Durgapur and then south till it joins the Damodar near Chirkuda.

Notable people