DURG, Chhattisgarh

Main Attraction: Bhilai Steel Plant

Bhilai Steel Plant situated in Bhilai Nagar of Durg is the pride of the district. It has been the flagship integrated steel plant unit of the Public Sector steel company, the Steel Authority of India Limited and is its largest and most profitable production facility. It is the flagship plant of SAIL, contributing the largest percentage of profit.

It was setup with the technical and financial support of Soviet Russia in 1955. The eleven-time winner of the Prime Minister’s Trophy for best integrated steel plant in the country, it is the India’s sole producer of rails and heavy steel plates and major producer of structural steel. The plant also produces and markets various chemical by-products from its coke ovens and coal chemical plant.

Brief History

Durg district is situated in the West-Central part of the Chhattisgarh plain. The district is bounded by Kabeerdham and Bilaspur districts in the North, Raipur and Dhamtari district in the East, Rajnandgaon district in the West and Uttar Bastar Kanker in the South.

The district derives its name from the headquarters town of ‘Durg’ which is the vernacular word for a fort. The headquarters town contains the ruins of a mud fort said to be of great antiquity. Now obliterated, Durg is an old town with a fort on the eastern bank of the Seonath river, 38 kms. west of Raipur. Its very name, suggests its having once been the principal fortified position in the south of Mahakoshal. As Durg is situated on the Seo or Seonath river, it is likely that it’s full name was Shiv-Durg, which gradually got shortened to Durg.

Durg district was constituted on 1st January, 1906. Initially, there were 3 tahsils viz Durg, Bemetra and Balod in the district. The area of this district was expanded thereafter in 1907 and later in 1948 by the addition of ex-zamindaris and feudatory states. On 1st October, 1907 four zamindaris of Chandrapur-Panbaras, Koracha, Pundhi and Ambagarh post were merged into Durg district. Then on 1st January, 1948 the ex-feudatory states- Khairagarh, Rajnandgaon, Kawardha and Chhuikhadan were included in this districts. Durg district was bifurcated in January, 1976. Rajnandgaon, Chhuikhadan, Khairagarh, Kawardha, Ambagarh were separated from Durg district to form a new Rajnandgaon district.

In ancient times Durg was a part of Dakshin Kosala or Maha Kosala to distinguish it from North Kosala. Samudra Gupta of the Gupta Dynasty conquered this area in the middle of the 4th century and the Gupta rule continued till about the 6th century. An inscription found in Arang testifies to the sovereignty of the Guptas in this area. Who the immediate successors of the Guptas were is not known but when the famous Chinese traveler Hiuen Tsiang visited Maha Kosala in 639 A.D. a Buddhist king was ruling here. The parent line of this kingdom was probably at Bhandak in Chanda district (Maharastra) and the headquarters of the Maha Kosala branch was at Sirpur, now a village in Raipur district. The reign of this dynasty seems to have continued upto the 8th or 9th century though the later kings changed over from Buddhism to Shaivism as is clear from various records of Maha Shiva Gupta who built a number of temples dedicated to Shiva.

At that time, a dynasty known as Shailvahini (or mountain dynasty) established itself in the north of Durg district and they extended their rule upto Gandai. An eighth century inscription found at Durg points to the rule of a king Shivadeva of Durg. The intervening period between the rule of this dynasty and the rule of the Haihayas is not historically clear and it can not be said as to when the Haihayas rose to power in Chhattisgarh. The inscription at Ratanpur dated 1114 A.D., mentions that the first chief of the Haihayavanshi line conquered Dakshina Kosala around the 10th Century. A powerful cheif known as Jagpal ruled over Raipur and Durg areas under the domain of the upper branch of the Haihayas at Ratanpur.

The southern portions of Durg district were under the Kanker chief who was a tributary of Haihayas and at about the some time another Chief Yash Karandeva was ruling in the north in Sahaspur Lohara. Dhamdha had been given in to the Gonds of Sardha and Balod had a separate king who was later overthrown by the Gonds and a Kalar chief ruled at Sorar. Thus the district seems to have been divided into petty principalities, the remnants of which flourished up to 1951 in the form of a large number of Zamindaris and Feudatory States.

For the purpose of Suba administration Durg was attached to Bhandara district (Now in Maharastra State) but in 1857 it was separated and made into a tahsil of Raipur district to which it remained attached till 1906.