Bhubaneswar turns 74 Today; Celebrations begin

Insight Bureau:  Bhubaneswar, “Temple City of India” marks its 74th Foundation day today on April 13.

Bhubaneswar derived its name from Tribhubaneswar, which means the Lord  of the Three Worlds , referring to Lord Shiva and the city exhibits temple architecture down the centuries.

Foundation day of Bhubaneswar is celebrated on April 13, on this day 1948 Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had laid the foundation stone of Bhubaneswar as Capital City of Odisha. Bhubaneswar along with Jamshedpur and Chandigarh was designed by the renowned German architect Otto Koenigsberger in 1946 and was one of the modern India’s first planned cities.

This year, the special eve of Bhubaneswar Foundation day was celebrated on PMG Square in Bhubaneswar.

Notably, students from 10 colleges of Bhubaneswar took part in the civilian parade which was held this morning. The students will also be participating in the cultural competition that is scheduled to be held today at 4:30 pm at Utkal Mandap in front of Indira Gandhi Park near the State Assembly.

The 10 colleges include Buxi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar (BJB) Autonomous College, Rajdhani College, Maharishi College of Natural Law, Biju Patnaik College of Science and Education, Kamala Nehru Women’s College, Satyasai Women’s College, Maharishi Women’s College, City Women’s College, Raja Madhusudan Dev Degree College, and Debaray Nayapalli College.

Odisha Assembly speaker Surya Narayan Patro attended the meeting as the chief guest. Police Commissioner Soumendra Priyadarshi, Bhubaneswar Mayor Sulochana Das, Jatani MLA Suresh Rautray, Minister Ashok Chandra Panda, MLA Prafulla Samal attended the special occasion.

Further, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) had asked the residents of the capital to decorate their homes with lights and lamps on the occasion and celebrate the eve of Foundation day.

In the Smart City proposal, Bhubaneswar topped among the best cities of India with a score of 78.83 points.

The city has a history of over 3,000 years beginning from the Mahamegha-bahana Chedi dynasty (around 2nd century BC) with Sisupalgarh as its capital.

The capital of Odisha is scenic, lively, green and clean with its rich cultural heritage. The city is known for its temples which are the major center of attraction for tourists from far and wide. The city is also being considered as the ‘Sports Capital’ of the country with several modern infrastructures. Bhubaneswar also hosted a number of mega international sports events in the past few years.

Bhubaneswar is probably the only city that enables an authentic overview of the stages of development of Hindu temple architecture.

Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik tweets on the occasion Rajadhani Pratishtha Dibasa.

WATCH : Capital Foundation Day celebrations in Bhubaneswar.