Connectivity

Rail: Bhubaneswar is among the best connected cities of India, courtesy of Indian Railways, the multiple private airlines and the revamped highway system of India. The temporary location of IIT Bhubaneswar can be reached via the Bhubaneswar station, and the permanent location can be reached via both the Bhubaneswar station and the Khurda Rd station.

From the North, there are 34 weekly connections between Bhubaneswar and Delhi; with daily Rajdhani connection and a weekly Duranto connection. One of the train passing via Delhi, operates thrice a week, connecting Amritsar with Bhubaneswar via Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Ambala, Panipat, Delhi, Agra, Gwalior and Bilaspur and another, a daily train, connects Haridwar with Bhubaneswar via Roorkee, Meerut, Delhi, Agra, Gwalior, Jhansi, Bilaspur and Rourkela. The other trains between Delhi and Bhubaneswar are via Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal and connect Aligarh, Allahabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Varanasi, Gaya, Gomoh, Adra, Bokaro, Tata, Purulia, Sasaram etc. to Bhubaneswar. There is a weekly train connecting Jodhpur and Jaipur to Bhubaneswar via Kota, Ujjain, Bhopal, Itarsi, Nagpur, Gondia and Raipur. There are two trains connecting Patna to Bhubaneswar at a total frequency of three times a week. There are several trains connecting the North East (Guwahati and beyond) with Bhubaneswar; with eleven weekly connections between Guwahati and Bhubaneswar and one weekly connection between Dibrugarh and Bhubaneswar via Tinsukia, Dimapur, Lumding and Guwahati. Amongst them, there is biweekly connection between Guwahati/Kamkhya to Puri via New Jalpaiguri, Malda, Durgapur and Asansol. The rest pass through Bhubaneswar connecting southern cities.

There are multiple trains between Kolkata and Bhubaneswar and Visakhapatnam and Bhubaneswar, daily connection and more between Raipur and Bhubaneswar, and Ranchi and Bhubaneswar, one daily train between Mumbai and Bhubaneswar via Pune and four times a week trains via Nagpur, six days a week connectivity between Ahmedabad and Bhubaneswar/KhurdaRd via Surat and Vadodara, weekly connectivity between Okha and Bhubaneswar via Jamnagar and 4 days a week connection between Goa (Vasco) and Bhubaneswar via Hubli. Bhubaneswar is well connected with the southern cities with four daily trains between Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar, two daily trains and many other trains between Chennai and Bhubaneswar, two daily trains and many other trains between Bangalore and Bhubaneswar and seven weekly connections between Kochi and Bhubaneswar. These connections include connection to Tirupati, Pondichery, Kanyakumari, Trichy, Coimbatore and Trivendrum. This map shows the places that have direct connections to Bhubaneswar.

Air: The Bhubaneswar airport is served by Air India, Jetlite, Kingfisher Red, Kingfisher, and Indigo. At the time of initial writing there were four daily direct connections between Bhubaneswar and Delhi (Kingfisher Red, Air India, Jetlite and Indigo), 4-5 daily direct connections between Bhubaneswar and Kolkata (Air India, Jetlite and Kingfisher), three daily direct or 1-stop connections between Bhubaneswar and Mumbai (Kingfisher Red, Indigo and Air India), one daily direct connection between Bhubaneswar and Bangalore (Kingfisher Red) and two daily direct connections between Bhubaneswar and Hyderabad (Indigo and Kingfisher). In addition there are seasonal Air India flights between Raipur and Bhubaneswar and Chennai and Bhubaneswar.

Roads: Bhubaneswar is on the golden quadrilateral on NH-5 between Kolkata and Chennai.

Location

The permanent campus of IIT Bhubaneswar will be next to the Khurda Rd station, and very close to the NISER location. It is awesome and unique that the IISc-type science institute NISER and IIT Bhubaneswar are going to be very close to each other. The temporary campus of IIT Bhubaneswar will be the Bhubaneswar extension center of IIT Kharagpur. This place is located in one of the prime spots of Bhubaneswar, next to many top hotels (Trident Oberoi, Mayfair Lagoon, Swosti Plaza, Ginger and Pal Heights) with their nice restaurants, very close to the Pal Heights mall with a Spencers and an Oxford book store, next to the Mahatma Gandhi Park, about 1500 meters from the Kalinga stadium and its amenities (such as pools), close to the ESI and Kalinga Hospitals, and also very close to several top institutes such as IMMT (Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology), Institute of Physics (also the temporary location of NISER), Institute of Life Sciences, and Xaviers Institute of Business Management.

Nature, flora and fauna

The temporary IIT Bhubaneswar location is 10 kms from the famed Nandan Kanan Zoological garden and its adjacent Botanical garden and lakes, 2-3 kms from the Ekamra Kanan Regional plant resource center and its lakes, and 10 kms from various access points to the 193.39 sq km Chandaka-Dampara elephant sanctuary. The elephant sanctuary has hills, rivluets, dams, and lakes. The fauna of the Chandaka-Dampara sanctuary includes elephants, pangolins, bears, leopards, wild pigs, pythons and monitor lizards. Further along on the road to the sanctuary is the mighty Mahanadi river, and across the Mahanadi is the Ansupa lake. Upriver on Mahanadi one will reach the famous Satkosia gorges (also a sanctuary and a tiger reserve) and downriver in 10-15 kms one will get to the point where Mahanadi splits to Kathajodi and Birupa and engulfs the millenium city of Cuttack, the twin of Bhubaneswar. One can participate in rowing and sculling at the Jagatpur water sports complex in Cuttack, or embark on a rafting expedition down the Mahanadi from Satkosia gorges to Paradeep. Besides the plenty of things one can do on a short trip to Puri, Konark, Chilika lake and Gopalpur-at-sea, one can spend a day or half a day learning sand art making skills at the Golden Sand Art Institute in Puri and if lucky watch the international award winning sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik making some of his masterpieces.

For slightly longer trips, one may venture to Bhitarkanika national park, Similipal national park (just declared as a UNESCO Biosphere; one among seven in India) or the many spots in the tribal and mountainous districts of South Orissa.

Knowledge Hub

Bhubaneswar is the only city in India that is currently scheduled to have

• an IIT,
• a top-notch science institute in NISER (at par with IISERs but funded by DAE) and
• an Innovation University aiming to be of world class standard

In addition, it has a top notch management school in XIM, a IIIT, a National Law University and will be having an AIIMS-like institute. In Puri, 40 kms away from Bhubaneswar's southern edges, Vedanta University is being built with a budget of $3 billion (Rs 15,000 crores) and in an area of 6000+ acres. Mr. Anil Agarwal has pledged to the PM of India to provide $1 Billion (Rs 5,000 crores) of his own money towards this. Besides the above, Bhubaneswar and its vicinity has:

• Several universities: Utkal University, Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Ravenshaw University, Utkal University of Culture, KIIT Deemed University, Siksha `O' Anusandhan deemed University and Sri Jagannath Sanskrit University (in Puri). Other upcoming universities include ICFAI university, Jagadguru Kripalu University for Spiritual Sciences and Sri Sri University; the later aiming to be a major institution of international caliber for 15,000 students in various disciplines.
• Several research institutes: Institute of Physics, the Institute of Life Sciences, the Institute of Mathematics and Applications, the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, the Central Rice Research Institute, the Central Institute of Fresh Water Aquaculture, Regional Plant Resources Center and the Regional Medical Research Center.

• Over 60 engineering colleges, including an women's engineering college in KISD; and many others in the pipeline.

• Four medical Colleges in SCB Medical College (Cuttack), Hi-Tec medical college, KIMS, SUM hospital and medical college; and several others in the pipeline.

Bhubaneswar has some unique advantages for a student lifestyle as it is:

• A city relatively free of crime and violence.
• A sprawling metropolis that is not overcrowded.
• Relatively free of pollution.
• Cheap and affordable.
• A vibrant city with malls, restaurants, hotels, clubs, and bookstores.
• Has plenty of accommodations for female students.