Astaranga is a fishing and agricultural village and a community development block in

Puri district Puri district is a coastal district of the Odisha state of India. It has one sub-division, 11 tahasils and 11 blocks and comprises 1722 revenue villages. Puri is the only municipality of the district. Konark, Pipili and Nimapara are the thre ...

in the Indian state of

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

. It was a part of 'Lavana Satyagraha' (

Salt March The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mahatma Gandhi. The twenty-four day march lasted from 12 March to 6 April 1930 as a di ...

), a nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

. It is a major exporter of betel leaves, mainly to

North India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...

and other countries. The most visited tourist place, known as Pir Jahania, is situated at the shore of Bay of Bengal. ''

Casuarina ''Casuarina'' is a genus of 17 tree species in the family Casuarinaceae, native to Australia, the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, islands of the western Pacific Ocean, and eastern Africa. It was once treated as the sole genus in the fami ...

'' trees are planted in a vast area to give shades to the tourists. Astaranga also has two other picnic spots like Ganga Devi muhana & Nuagarh jethi. The government has planned for a marine drive road along the seashore. In Astaranga, there is a nodal primary school above a century old, a high school above 50 years old whose first headmaster was 'Sarala puraskar' winner for his poetry Kulamani Swain, a Saraswati Sishu Vidya Mandir, Anganbadi for small children and three CBSE schools.

Etymology

Astranga means 'colors of setting Sun'.

Geography

Astaranga is located at . It is near the mouth of the

Devi River Devi river is one of the principal distributaries of Mahanadi. It flows through Jagatsinghpur district and Puri district across Odisha state in India and joins Bay of Bengal. Course The river forms the final part of a great network of Mahanadi ...

. It is about east of

Puri Puri () is a coastal city and a Nagar Palika, municipality in the state of Odisha in eastern India. It is the district headquarters of Puri district and is situated on the Bay of Bengal, south of the state capital of Bhubaneswar. It is als ...

and lies on the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between ...

coast. It is about from

Konark Konark is a medium town in the Puri district in the state of Odisha, India. It lies on the coast by the Bay of Bengal, 65 kilometres from the capital of the state, Bhubaneswar. It is the site of the 13th-century Sun Temple, also known as t ...

Economy

Port

Hyderabad-based Navayuga Engineering Co. is planning to construct a Rs. 6 billion port at Astaranga. The company will implement the port project near the Devi River in three phases on a build- own-operate-share-transfer basis, with an investment of Rs. 1.50 billion in the first phase. The second and third phase of the project will comprise Rs. 2 billion and Rs. 2.50 billion, respectively. Astaranga is one of the four new ports being set up on the Odisha coast. Nineteen sites for ports have been identified on the Odisha coast. Navayug Engineering Company Limited submitted techno-feasibility report with the State government for setting up port at Astaranga in Puri district. It approached

East Coast Railway The East Coast Railway (abbreviated ECoR) is one of the 19 railway zones of Indian Railways. It came into existence on 1 April 2003. The headquarters of the zone are at Bhubaneswar, Odisha History Consequent upon the parliament's approval, Ea ...

to extend the project a rail link. The Odisha government has relaxed a vital clause in its MoU with the

Navayuga Engineering Company Limited Navayuga Engineering Company Limited (NEC Limited), the flagship entity of the Navayuga Group, started its operations in 1999 as a private limited company. Sectors * Special foundations * Industrial structures * Marine structures * Infrastru ...

(NECL) enabling the latter to sign a concession agreement with it for developing an all weather port at Astaranga.

Power plant

Astaranga Power Company Ltd signed a MoU with Government of Odisha in 2009 for setting up a power plant at Astaranga. It intends to establish a 2,640MW thermal power plant in two phases.

Steel plant

Navayuga Engineering Company Limited is interested in setting up a port-based steel facility, preferably at Astaranga.

References

{{Hydrography of Odisha Cities and towns in Puri district Puri district