Raipur

Raipur is located near the centre of a large plain, sometimes referred to as the "rice bowl of India", where hundreds of varieties of rice are grown.[15] The Mahanadi River flows to the east of the city of Raipur, and the southern side has dense forests. The Maikal Hills rise on the north-west of Raipur; on the north, the land rises and merges with the Chota Nagpur Plateau, which extends north-east across Jharkhand state. On the south of Raipur lies the Deccan Plateau.

Raipur has a tropical wet and dry climate, temperatures remain moderate throughout the year, except from March to June, which can be extremely hot. The temperature in April–May sometimes rises above 48 °C (118 °F). These summer months also have dry and hot winds. The city receives about 1,300 millimetres (51 in) of rain, mostly in the monsoon season from late June to early October. Winters last from November to January and are mild, although lows can fall to 5 °C (41 °F) making it reasonably cold.

Raipur city has a Municipal corporation. It was initially established by the British on 17 May 1867, initially named Raipur Municipal committee.[18] It was upgraded to Raipur Municipal Corporation in the year 1973.[18] The area of the municipal corporation is 226 km² (87 sq mi).[1][19] RMC is governed under the guidelines mentioned in the Chhattisgarh Municipalities Act, 1961.[19] As per the 2011 Census of India, the urban agglomeration population in Raipur, Durg-Bhilai was 3,186,632. The three urban cities of Raipur, Bhilai and Durg in the west central region of Chhattisgarh together create the Raipur-Bhilai-Durg Tri City Metro area.

The functions under the municipal corporation are the construction of health centres, educational institutes, schools, and periodic maintenance of the houses.[20] In addition to taking the responsibility of constructing basic civic infrastructure, flyovers, and roads, it is also developing recreational centres such as museums, community halls, and parks. Along with basic civic infrastructure, flyovers, and roads.[20]

The executive committee consists of the Commissioner, Deputy commissioner, city health officers, executive engineers, zone commissioners, and other staff.[21] The Municipal Commissioner of Raipur is Shri. Saurabh Kumar (I.A.S).[22] The current mayor is Aijaz Dhebar from INC. The Mayor in the council consists of the Mayor who is the ex officio chairperson of the MIC. Among elected councillors, the mayor elects them to the council.[21] There are 70 wards and 8 zones within the Raipur Municipal Corporation.[20] The zonal ward committees are headed by chairpersons who are elected by ward councillors of the respective zone.[23]

The recent municipal elections were held on 21 December 2019. The political parties in the majority at the municipal level are BJP and INC. The estimated municipal budget the 2017-2018 period is ₹ 2,612,667. Key revenue sources are tax income, fees and charges, sanitation charges, grants and donations, and capital income.[24]

The city is a part of Raipur District with S. Bharathi Dasan, IAS/Collector and DM.[25] The collector heads the district administration department.[25] The upper collector, deputy collector and joint deputy assist the Collector. Other governing agencies that are active in the city of Raipur is the Urban Administration And Development, Chhattisgarh.[25]

Raipur Master Plan 2021 recognizes the need for planned development to take the pressure off the downtown core and meet the need for green spaces and bodies of water in that area. The plan calls for dense housing in new subdivisions on the outskirts and well-planned high-rise commercial and industrial development along with the NH-6 as well as on the north side of the city.[26]

Raipur is a Lok Sabha/Parliamentary constituency in central Chhattisgarh. Raipur's Lok Sabha seat is unreserved. Sunil Kumar Soni of BJP is the current Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from the city.[27] There are seven Vidhan Sabha seats in Raipur district, including three in Raipur City, one in Raipur Rural and three in Outer Tehsils.[28]

The superintendent of Engineers Executive Engineers, the team of Engineers, and the staff responsible for the related activities of the road department head the public works department.[18] Their purposes are planning and designing of road stormwater drains, maintenance of roads and streets, maintenance of gardens and parks, resurfacing the roads, and repairing potholes and bad patches.[18]

In the bus transport system of Raipur City there is a total number of 157 buses plying within the city.[40]

The city's electricity is supplied by Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company Limited. Fire and emergency services were set up in 2016 to protect fire incidents in the state.[41] As per the directions of the government, the Fire Station of the urban body are being taken under fire and emergency services.[41]

The existing source of unfiltered water is from the Kharun river, and about 170 million litres of water per day (MLD) is treated on a daily basis, and the plant has a treatment capacity of 275 MLD. The per capita water supply in the city of Raipur is 135 litres per day. There is a water supply connection serving a total of 50,000 households. Along with water from the Kharun River (27 MLD), another source of water is groundwater, and the capacity utilized is 22 MLD. There is a total of 1,133 handpumps in the city.

There is a lack in the sewerage systems of Raipur City. The data for households with a Sewerage Network is unavailable,[42] but the number of households with septic tanks are 1,44,882 and the households without any outlets for toilets is 5,649.[42] The city has no separate drainage system nor any sewer lines. There is a separate stormwater drainage system, laid as per requirement.[42]

The waste management in the city is entrusted with the city health officer, the in-charge health officer, zonal health officer, and the team of sanitary supervisors and ward supervisors.[18] A total of 3,56,490 households have been successful with source segregation and are covered by door-to-door collection.[43] Raipur's major waste disposal site is the Sarona site, which is 12 km away from the city centre.[43]

Some major roads in Raipur are National Highway 53 (NH-53), National Highway 30 (NH-30), Great Eastern Road, Pandri Road, Baloda Bazar Road, Nardha Raipur Road, VIP Road, and Atal Path Expressway.

The Raipur–Naya Raipur Expressway, also known as Atal Path Expressway, is a 12.7 km (7.9 mi) access-controlled expressway connecting Raipur to Naya Raipur. It has been made to ease the traffic on the GE road and provide faster access to Dhamtari road from Raipur railway station. It serves 4 flyovers and 1 elevated corridor, crossing over GE road and NH-53 in between two ends of expressway.

The proposed Durg–Raipur–Arang Expressway and the under-construction Raipur–Visakhapatnam Expressway will pass through and start from Raipur, which after completion, will enhance connectivity and commute further with other cities to and from Raipur.

Raipur and Naya Raipur Bus Rapid Transit System

A recently constructed bus station, the Sri Balaji Swami Trust Sri Dudhadhari Math Inter State Bus Terminal, or ISBT Raipur, is located at Ravanbhantha, and is the main bus station of the city. It has replaced the old Minimata Bus Stand or Pandri Stand, which was creating heavy traffic problems. The services of the new ISBT started on 15 November 2021. The only bus rapid transit system is the Raipur and Naya Raipur BRTS.

A light rail, or a Metrolite or Lite Metro (as referred in India), has been proposed by the Government of Chhattisgarh, which will run from Naya Raipur to Durg via Raipur and Bhilai.[44]

Main side of Railway station

Raipur Junction Railway Station

Raipur Junction railway station is the primary railway station of the city, which is situated on the Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line of the Indian Railways, running through the cities of Bhusawal, Nagpur, Gondia, Bilaspur, Rourkela and Kharagpur. Thus, it is connected with most major cities of India. It is categorized in the A-1 category of railway stations by the Indian Railways. Some small railway stations are also present here for local trains like Sarona, Saraswati Nagar, and WRS Colony railway stations. They also lie on the same railway route.

Swami Vivekananda Airport, Raipur

Swami Vivekananda Airport, or Mana Airport, is the primary airport serving the state of Chhattisgarh. The airport is located 15 km (9.3 mi) south of Raipur and 10 km (6.2 mi) from Naya Raipur. The airport is well-connected, having daily direct flights to Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Goa, Lucknow, Indore, Jaipur, Patna, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Prayagraj, and Jagdalpur, operated by Alliance Air, IndiGo and Vistara airlines.[45]

• All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Raipur (AIIMS)
• Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering and Technology
• Hidayatullah National Law University
• Indian Institute of Management Raipur (IIM)
• International Institute of Information Technology, Naya Raipur
• National Institute of Malaria Research
• National Institute of Technology, Raipur(NIT)
• National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) (Proposed) at Naya Raipur

• Chandulal Chandrakar Patrakarita Avam Jansanchar Vishwavidyalaya
• Chhattisgarh Kamdhenu Vishwavidyalaya
• Chhattisgarh Swami Vivekanand Technical University
• Pandit Ravishankar Shukla University
• Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay Memorial Health Sciences and Ayush University of Chhattisgarh

• Amity University
• ICFAI University
• ITM University
• Kalinga University
• MATS University

• Government Engineering College (GEC)
• Pragati College of Engineering and Management
• Raipur Institute of Technology
• Shri Shankaracharya Institute of Professional Management and Technology (SSIPMT)

• Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
• DAV Public School
• Kendriya Vidyalaya
• Rajkumar College, established 1882
• Ryan International School
• Delhi Public School

Many local news channels are telecast from Raipur in Hindi:

Many national and local newspapers are published from Raipur in both Hindi and English:

Raipur city has five FM Radio Stations -