Belpahar is a town and a municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 in Jharsuguda district

Jharsuguda District

Jharsuguda is a district in Orissa, India with Jharsuguda town as its headquarters. The district once had an airport during World War II. This region is rich in coal and other mineral reserves...

  in the state of Orissa

Orissa

Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. Belpahar is famous for its geographical location, as it is the center for many coal mines areas nearby. Tata Refractories is located in Belpahar while there is Mahanadi Coalfields Limited and Ib Thermal Power station in the vicinity. It has a railway station which levels 242 metres high above the sea level. This area is among the fastest growing industrial zones in Orissa.

Demographics

India census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

, Belpahar had a population of 32,807. Males constitute 54% of the population and females 46%. Belpahar has an average literacy rate of 70%, higher than the national average of 59.5%; with 60% of the males and 40% of females literate. 11% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Transport

Belpahar is well connected by road and rail (but not by Air).
Belpahar railway station is well connected with trains from Howrah, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bhubaneswar and Ahmedabad. Jharsuguda which is 22 km from Belpahar is connected from the rest of the country including Chennai and Bangalore.
Belpahar is connected through direct buses from Rourkela, Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur and Raipur. National Highway 200 connects Belpahar directly to Raipur.

Economy

Belpahar is surrounded by many coal mines. The IB thermal power plant is located near Belpahar. The major industry is TRL Krosaki Ltd. Other important industries surrounding Belpahar are IB Thermal Power Plant and Mahanadi Coal Field.

Education

Belpahar has six major schools. Girdhar Lal High School (GLHS), Aadarsh Balika Utchya Vidyalay (ABUV), Belpahar English Medium School (BEMS), Dayanand Anglo Vedic Public School(DAVPS), Vivekananda International School (VINS), and the Belpahar Refractory High school (BRHS), which prepares students for higher secondary education. Of these, Girdhar is the oldest. BEMS follows the curriculum of ICSE (Year 10) and ISC (Year 12).
DAVPS follows the CBSE curriculum. BRHS follow the curriculum of the Orissa state board of higher education. For higher studies, Belpahar college offers graduate degrees in commerce, arts and science.

Sports

TRL field, is one of the biggest ground in state. Surrounded by galary of sitting capacity 10,000 people at once. It has witnessed many state level cricket tournament and national level ladies football tournament.

Healthcare

Jahangir Ghandy Hospital is one of the best hospital in this area equipped with all the latest medical equipments, Adding to this it has Dr Samal's Clinic, Dr Latika patel in government Hospitals, Dr Zia Ul Haque(M.D, working in Gupta Nursing Home, Jharsuguda) and Dr pradhan's clinic and a dental clinic near SBI Belpahar.

Places of interest

Belpahar also has some nearby tourist attractions such as Koili Ghoghar (35 kilometres from Belpahar), Lal Pathar (8 km from Belpahar),Khadu (5 kilometres from Belpahar),Ullapgarh & Ujjalpur (7 kilometres from Belphar),Jagannath Temple, Nava Durga Temple(Gandhi Nagar, Belpahar) and IB river (8 kilometres from Belpahar).

Belpahar has one beautiful Park named Jubilee park having a large variety of flower and water fountain cover with light work. The name of this park has been changed to JRD TATA Park.

Belpahar & surrounding areas are full of minerals.

Koili Ghoghar

A scenic tourist spot about forty five minutes away from Belpahar Railway Station on the way to Raigarh, Koili Ghoghar houses a beautiful river carving its way out of rock faces and cascading down in steps. It is a breath-taking sight during the rainy season. There are the resident ducks an monkeys that provide quite an entertainment for the tourists. It is a favoured picnic spot with people coming from far and near for a view of the lush greenery, surreal rock faces and the creamy waters cascading down the rocks. There is also a Shiva temple and a temple veneering a local deity for those with a religious vein. The town also has a Maa Tarini temple, near the NAC Checkpost(which is not closed),in the dense forest

Ullapgarh

This is a hillock about fifteen minutes away from Belpahar Railway Station. It is said that the revolutionaries fighting in the freedom struggle of India took refuge in this hillock. The spaces carved out from the rock face to hold torches can be seen to this day. The journey uphill entails one to be of a strong disposition as the sun and the dry heat can take their toll on one's bodily fluids. But once you reach the summit it is a view to behold. Greenery combined with the piercing silence is a great restorative. It would be advised to remember one's way up lest one may find themselves going down by a completely different path and hence get lost.