What You Need To Know
Nagpur is a large city in the central Indian state of Maharashtra. The 19th-century Nagpur Central Museum displays items found locally, including fossils, sarcophagi and Mughal weaponry. The Raman Science Centre has hands-on exhibits and a planetarium. Sitabuldi Fort, in the Sitabuldi Hills, was the site of an 1817 battle. To the southwest, the immense, domed Deekshabhoomi is a Buddhist monument and pilgrimage site.
It is famous for Nagpur oranges and is sometimes known as the Orange City for being a major trade center of oranges cultivated in large part of the region. It is also called the Tiger Capital of India or the Tiger Gateway of India as many tiger reserves are located in and around the city and also hosts the regional office of National Tiger Conservation Authority. The city was founded in 1702 by the Gond King Bakht Buland Shah of Deogarh and later became a part of the Maratha Empire under the royal Bhonsale dynasty. The British East India Company took over Nagpur in the 19th century and made it the capital of the Central Provinces and Berar. After the first re-organisation of states, the city lost its status as the capital. Following the informal Nagpur Pact between political leaders, it was made the second capital of Maharashtra.
Currency
The Indian rupee (Rs) is India’s currency, and comes in denominations of Rs1,000, 500, 100, 50, 20, 10 and 5 notes. Coins come in denominations of Rs5, 2 and 1, as well as 50 and 25 paise. There are 100 paise in a rupee.
You can’t exchange Indian rupees outside of the country so if you’re going to need money to get to your hotel, you must head to the airport’s exchange bureau when you arrive.
The best exchange rates are offered by the banks in India, however the cheapest option is to withdraw cash from the ATMs as they are convenient and give the most competitive rates. You’ll find no shortage of unauthorised money changers, but it’s inadvisable to use them as you could be cheated easily.
ATMs are widely available in the big cities across India and they typically accept Cirrus and PLUS. Most ATMs allow you to withdraw Rs10,000 at a time, which is roughly US$200. Credit cards are accepted in the larger restaurants, hotels and shops, with Visa and MasterCard being the most popular; expect a two per cent service change. Traveller’s cheques are accepted at banks, hotels and some restaurants.
Economy
Nagpur is an emerging metropolis. Nagpur’s nominal GDP was estimated to be around ₹ 1,406,860 million in 2019–20, making it the largest economic center in entire central India. Nagpur district has a per-capita GDP of ₹ 270,617 as of 2019-20 financial year, being the highest in the central India In 2004, it was ranked the fastest-growing city in India in terms of the number of households with an annual income of ₹10 million or more. Nagpur has been the main centre of commerce in the region of Vidarbha since its early days and is an important trading location. Although, Nagpur’s economic importance gradually declined relative to Mumbai and Pune after the merging of Vidarbha into Maharashtra because of a period of neglect by the state government, the city’s economy later recovered.
Festivals and events
The city contains people from other Indian states as well as people belonging to the world’s major faiths, and yet is known for staying calm during communal conflicts in India. Nagpur plays host to cultural events throughout the year. Cultural and literary societies in Nagpur include Vidarbha Sahitya Sangh (for development of Marathi), Vidarbha Rashtrabhasha Prachar Samiti (promotion and spreading Hindi) and Vidarbha Hindi Sahitya Sammelan (for promoting Hindi). Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, the conference on Marathi Literature were held twice in Nagpur city. Nagpur also hosts the annual Orange City Literature festival since 2019 and Vidarbha Literary Fest since 2020, featuring local and international authors.Nagpur is the head office of Aadim Samvidhan Sanrakshan Samiti (working for the rights of scheduled tribes).
The South-Central Zone Cultural Centre also sponsors cultural events in Nagpur city, such as the Orange City Craft Mela and Folk Dance Festival, Vidarbha which is noted for its numerous folk-dances such as the human tiger. Newspapers are published from Nagpur in Marathi, English and Hindi. In addition, the Government of Maharashtra organises a week-long Kalidas Festival, a series of music and dance performances, by national level artists. Nagpur Municipal Corporation in partnership with Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation organises Nagpur Mohotsav at Yeshwant Stadium, in which many distinguish artists participate. The Nagpur Municipal Corporation also organises the Orange City International Film Festival (OCIFF) annually, in association with Saptak, Pune Film Foundation, Vidarbha Sahitya Sangh, and Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU).[201]
The Nagpur Central Museum (est. 1863) maintains collections are mainly for Vidarbha region. Three brothers Ghulam Ali (Kotwal), Mohammad Saaduddin (Subedar) and Mohammad Saladuddin (Minister and Kotwal) from Jhajjar are remembered as great scholars of Urdu and Persian during the reign of Maharaja Senasaheb Subha Chhatrapati Raghuji Bapusaheb Bhonsle III. They founded ‘Jhajjar Bagh’ at Hansapuri (Now Mominpura). In this location, they built their residence ‘Aina-e Mahal’, a well and a Masjid (now Masjid Ahle Hadith). ‘Jhajjar Bagh’ also known as ‘Subedar ka Bada’ was located where nowadays Mohammad Ali Road at Mominpura, Jamia Masjid, Mohammad Ali Sarai and Furqania Madrasa are located.
- The state government has approved a new safari park of international standards besides Gorewada Lake. In 2013 NMC erected the gigantic Namantar Shahid Smarak in memory of Namantar Andolan martyrs.
- The Orange City LGBTQ Pride March is also held annually in Nagpur, along with the Nagpur LGBT Queer Carnival during the pride month
Language
Official languages are Hindi and Urdu
Health
NMC in collaboration with Central Government, State Government, UNICEF, World Health Organization and Non-governmental organisation conducts and maintains various health schemes in the city. City health line is an initiative started by NMC dedicated to the health of citizens of Nagpur. This includes providing computerised comparative information and action in the field to local citizens. NMC runs three indoor patient hospitals including Indira Gandhi Rugnalaya at LAD square, Panchpaoli Maternity Hospital in Panchpaoli and Isolation Hospital in Immamwada. Besides, the civic body runs three big diagnostic centres at Mahal, Sadar and also at Indira Gandhi Rugnalaya. Apart from these, NMC has 57 outpatient dispensaries (OPDs), including 23 health posts sanctioned under Union Government’s schemes, 15 allopathy hospitals, 12 ayurvedic hospitals, three homoeopathy hospitals, three naturopathy hospitals and one Unani hospital. In 2013, ABP News-Ipsos declared Nagpur the country’s best city for health care services. The city is home to numerous hospitals, some run by the government and some private and consists of various super-specialty and multi-specialty ones. Recently various cancer speciality hospitals providing treatment until tertiary care for cancer patients have been established in the city making it a natural medical hub for nearby areas and boosting healthcare system in the city. Nagpur is a health hub for Central India and caters to a large geographical area arbitrarily bounded by Delhi in the north, Kolkata in the east, Mumbai-Pune in the west and Hyderabad in the south. People from Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana regularly come to Nagpur for their health needs. Nagpur boasts of super-specialty physicians and surgeons serving its population in both public sector government-run hospitals and well equipped private hospitals catering to all strata of society AIIMS has also been established in MIHAN, Nagpur.
According to 2005 National Family Health Survey, Nagpur has a fertility rate of 1.9 which is below the replacement level. The infant mortality rate was 43 per 1,000 live births, and the mortality rate for children under five was 50 per 1,000 live births. About 57% slum and 72% non-slum children have received all the mandatory vaccines which include BCG, measles and full courses of polio and DPT. In Nagpur, 78 percent of poor children are anaemic, including 49 percent who have moderate to severe anaemia. About 45% of children under five years of age and 31% of women are underweight. The poor people from the city mostly cite the reason of the lack of a nearby facility, poor quality of care and excessive waiting time for not visiting any government hospitals for treatment. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) of 2015-16 for Nagpur, households having improved drinking water source is 95.3%, households having improved sanitation facility is 77.3% and households having clean fuel for cooking is 87.6%. Health Insurance coverage among households in the city are 19.5%. Female sterilization is more prominent than male sterilization in Nagpur. Institutional births in the city is 97%. Children below 5 years who are anemic are 43.50%, while women and men in the age group of 15 to 49 years who are anemic are 45.00% and 21.20%, respectively.
Transport
Railways started in Nagpur way back in 1867 when portion of Bombay-Bhusaval-Nagpur line was opened for traffic and train service from Nagpur to Calcutta was started in 1881. Today, a total of 254 trains stop at Nagpur railway station. These include passenger, express, mail, Duronto, Rajdhani, Garib Rath trains. Of these 65 are daily trains and 22 terminate/originate from Nagpur. Almost 1.6 lakh passengers board/leave Nagpur Railway Station Nagpur railway station, one of the oldest and busiest Stations of India was inaugurated in its present from on 15 January 1925 by the then Governor Sir Frank. Apart from the Nagpur railway station, Ajni Railway Station and Itwari Railway Station are the important stations of the city. Other railway stations in the city include Ajni, Motibagh, Kalamna, Itwari and Godhani. Nagpur-Ajni rail route which is just three km (1.9 mi) long, is the shortest train run in Indian Railways primarily meant for crew to travel from Nagpur station to the workshop at Ajni.
The city is the divisional headquarters for the Central Railway and South East Central Railway Zone of Indian Railways. Nagpur is a city with two divisional headquarters, a rare distinction it shares with Lucknow, which has headquarters for two different divisions in Northern Railway zone and North Eastern Railway zone.
Weather
Nagpur has tropical wet and dry climate (Aw in Köppen climate classification) with dry conditions prevailing for most of the year. It receives about 163 mm of rainfall in June. The amount of rainfall is increased in July to 294 mm. Gradual decrease of rainfall has been observed from July to August (278 mm) and September (160 mm). The highest recorded daily rainfall was 304 mm on 14 July 1994. Summers are extremely hot, lasting from March to June, with May being the hottest month. Winter lasts from November to February, during which temperatures drop below 10 °C (50 °F). The highest recorded temperature in the city was 47.9 °C on 29 May 2013, while the lowest was 3.5 °C on 29 December 2018.
The average number of heat wave days occurring in Nagpur in the summer months of March, April and May is 0.5, 2.4 and 7.2 days, respectively. May is the most uncomfortable and hottest month with, for example, 20 days of heat waves being experienced in 1973, 1988 and 2010. The summer season is characterized by other severe weather activity like thunderstorms, dust storms, hailstorms and squalls. Generally, hailstorms occur during March and dust storms during March and April. These occur infrequently (1 per 10 days). Squalls occur more frequently with 0.3 per day in March and April rising to 0.8 per day in May. Due to the heat waves in the city the Indian government with the help of New York-based National Resources Defense Council has launched a heat wave program since March 2016.
