Raipur Economy

Raipur has traditionally been an agricultural town which was famous for agricultural processing and saw milling. It is a commercial city located centrally in the newly formed state of Chattisgarh. It is a regional hub for commerce and trade. You can find a number of small scale industries including soap manufacturing, oil milling and electrical welding. As is the case with most of the world, the face of the city is fast changing and it is becoming one of the most important regional commercial and industrial centers for power, steel, aluminium and coal industries. Several industries have been set up near Raipur including cement, marble cutting and polishing and granite cutting and polishing industries. With its 170 steel rolling mills, 170 sponge iron plants and more than 250 steel plants, Raipur is India’s biggest iron market. Raipur also boasts of 800 agro-industries and 70 ferro-alloy plants. As for agro processing, there are about 300 rice milling plants in and around Raipur. The main occupation of Chattisgarh is agriculture. Over 80% of the total population of Chattisgarh is dependent on agriculture. The main crops produced in this reason are wheat, paddy, groundnut and maize. Chattisgarh is also richly endowed with mineral resources and about 20% of the country’s steel and cement are produced here. It is amongst the very few states in the country which boasts of a power surplus and about 90% of the villages here are electrified. Due to its supremacy in rice production, Chattisgarh is known as the rice bowl of central India. Over 70% of the total paddy production used to be done by Chattisgarh alone. Chattisgarh also produces cereals like maize, kodo-kutki and other millets; pulses like tur and kulthi and oilseeds like groundnut, Niger, sunflower and soybean. When it was a part of Madhya Pradesh, it used to produce about half of the food grains and about one third of all the major crops grown here. It used to produce over 45% of the jowar and over 80% of gram in undivided Madhya Pradesh. As for wheat, it produces very little of it. But about one fourth of pulses were produced by Chattisgarh in undivided Madhya Pradesh. The only problem with Chattisgarh is the lack of cash crops here. The agriculture needs diversification towards oilseeds and other cash crops. Industry Chattisgarh has always been famous for its cement and steel plants and its rice mills. The districts of Raipur, Durg, Bilaspur and Korba are amongst the leading locations of industrial development. The Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) is the largest integrated steel plant in the country. It was the establishment of this plant that led to the development of a number of industries in Bhilai and Raipur. You would also find that Chattisgarh has the largest number of small and big cement plants in the country. Korba with a number of power generating units established by MPEB and NTPC is one of the highest power generator in the country. There are a number of industrial centers in the state that are writing success stories. Some of the major centers are Urla and Siltara in Raipur; Sirgitti in Bilaspur and Borai in Durg.