Khurja

Khurja Khurja खुर्जा
city
Government
• Sitting Member of Parliament	Surendra Singh Nagar
Population  (2001)
• Total	98,403
Website	www.khurja.co.in

Khurja (Urdu: خورجہ, Hindi: खुर्जा) is a city (and a municipal board) in the Bulandshahr district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is situated around 85 km from Delhi. Khurja supplies a large portion of the ceramics and pottery used in the country, hence it is sometimes called Khurja, The Ceramics City.

The name Khurja is derived from the Urdu word kharija meaning, cancelled or condemned, as the revenue for this town was waived off because this land included many swamps and the agricultural possibilities were rare.

Khurja is now famous for its ceramics. With over 500 factories producing ceramic works, its skyline is dotted with chimneys. However, the ceramic industry has been a boon and bain for the town, providing it with much needed employment and chimneys giving out pollutants as most of them still run on coal.

How to Get to Khurja

Khurja being a significant town is linked by rail on the Delhi - Calcutta line and via the old GT Road to many major cities in India. There are two train stations, Khurja Junction which is on the main Delhi - Calcutta line and Khurja City which serves to Meerut.

Khurja can be reached by road or train. A drive from Delhi on a direct route has heavy traffic and takes about two and a half hours. Time can be saved by taking the expressway from Delhi to Noida, then the Dankaur station road to Sikandrabad, which is 37 km from Khurja. Starting early enough,

Khurja has three bus terminals: Bus Adda; which is the main bus terminus, Jewar Adda; the second terminus and Pahansu Adda; the third terminus. The latter 2 terminals are named after their locations and the routes of buses which they provide. Apart from these Bus terminals, this town has two railways stations one of which is the Khurja Junction(the main station linking Khurja with the major routes of the country) and the other is called Khurja City(a station established for most of the local routes to take off the rail traffic from the main junction).

Education

Schools

There are many educational institutes in the city and some of them are one of the oldest study centers in western Uttar Pradesh.

Junior Colleges (alphabetically): Arya Kanya Pathshala, Janaki Prasad Anglo Sanskrit (J.A.S) Intermediate College (Earlier High School)., Jatia Bal Vihar, S.M.J.E.C. Bharat Vikas Parishad Kanya Inter College.

and 
ASKRA INTER COLEGE

Some of the renowned schools of the town are: (alphabetically) Adarsh Shishu Mandir, Alpine Public School, N.R.Public School, Jatiya Vidya Niketan, K P Public School, Loyal Public School, Maharaja Agrasen Public School Khurja and Shaheed Dataram junior Highschool, shaheed dataram nagar (Dhariun) Smt. Savitri Devi Laxmi Chandra Sarswati Vidya Mandir.

Higher education

AKP College (PG) Arya Kanya Pathshala post Graduate College is a girls' college offering graduate and post graduate degrees. In 2009 it had an enrollment of around 350 students and 13 faculty members. The College is affiliated to Meerut University. The subjects offered for the degree are:

Graduate: Hindi, English, Sanskrit, Economics, History, Home Science, Music, Political Science

Post Graduate: Hindi and Political Science.

Arya Kanya Pathshala InterCollege is senior secondary school for girls. It was established in year 1922. Currently it has the enrollment of around 5000 students from class nursery to class 12th. Senior secondary: Arts, Science (Mathematics and Biology).

NREC College (Natthimal Ramsahay Edward Coronation) NREC is one of the oldest colleges in India and offers various courses to students leading up to PhDs. The total enrollment in the college in 2003 was around 2,900 students and around 110 faculty members.The College also conducts LLb classes. The College is affiliated to Meerut University.

Seth Gangasagar Jatia Polytechnic The Polytechnic provides diploma in various fields e.g. Electrical, Mechanical, Civil, Glass & Ceramic Engineering etc. It is the only institute in Uttar Pradesh which facilitates diploma engineering in Glass and Ceramic Engineering.

Vedd Yagdatta Sharma Ayurvadik Mahavidyala The college provides education in practice of ancient Indian medicine Ayurveda and was established by a well-known Ayurvedic practitioner. It offers a Degree course in Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery, which allows the students to practice Ayurvedic Medicine.

Khurja is in Bulandshahr

Markets & fairs

Khurja is a small town, with shops open till 11 p.m. in the Bindawala Chowk and Tareenan. It is easy to find people sipping hot milk in the winter and cold lassi and mango juice in the summer. Khurja has a great reputation for sweets prepared from milk, the most famous being 'Khurchan' which is made from layers upon layers of condensed milk.

Khurja is a small town consisted of many small markets which have great importance for the people residing here. The famous markets here are: Bindawala Chawk, Sabzi Mandi (town's biggest and main Vegetable Market),subhash road,Shaheed Dataram marg, Gandhi Road, (this road dividing Khurja into its east and west parts is considered to be the main market of the town which also links the town to its main localities), Raniwala Chawk, Jewar Adda, Moodha-Kheda, Bajaja Bazar (town's biggest textile market), Nayi Basti, Shaheed Dataram Chowk, Bus Adda (Bus Terminus) etc. The city has a cyber market called Sri Ram Complex, near NREC Degree College. There are more than 20 cyber cafes primarily serving city's youth .

The weekly market called Budh Bazar or The Wednesday Market, attracts immense crowds, and the whole area in which it is organized becomes a pedestrian zone.

Khurja annually holds a town fair called Ramlila during the festive season of Diwali which goes through the whole festive season and each day of the festival there is theatrical portrayal of the religious stories by various drama groups along with the town's biggest fair, the location of this fair is called the Panchvati which is mainly a group of agricultural farms which is transformed into the fair ground during the season. annually VIRAT KAVI SAMMELAN on dt 17 july in memory of Kargil Shaheed Dataram at Bir Balidan Bhoomi,Dhariun village.

Recently, there has been another annual fair, which takes place during the Hindu festival of Navratri after the establishment of a new temple Nav Durga Shakti Mandir.

Heritage buildings

Khurja has a beautiful countryside with old buildings and houses along the road. You can find houses more than 100 years old in many parts of the town which are considered as the heritage of the town but now are the victims of negligence. Some of the famous buildings are: Lala Mewaram ka Kamra (the room of Mr. Mewaram, is taken over by some residents), Seth Gangaram Bhawan (which now has been converted into a banquet hall), the building of J.A.S. Inter college is also said to be a piece of art

Entertainment

There is nothing much to do for entertainment in Khurja, 5 of the town's movie theaters are considered as primary means of entertainment. Three of these are very old. The names of these theaters are:

• Devi Chitra Mandir
• Laxmi Chitra Mandir
• Gulzar Cinema
• Moon Cineplex
• om restaurent
• grevity gym & dance club
• Bir Balidan Bhoomi name of Kargil Shaheed Dataram samadhi(Shaheed Dataram Nagar, dhariun village)

Khurja however is still away from multiplexes of big Indian cities.

Khurja is famous for its renowned seasonal fairs, which are held at various occasions and celebrations.

Industry

Khurja is famous worldwide for its ceramic industries. A lot of ceramic products produced are exported worldwide and some are distributed all across India.

About 500 ceramic whiteware industries around Khurja, a clustered which is now called Khurja Whiteware Cluster. The cluster serves more than twenty five thousand jobs manufacturing ceramic products like stoneware crockery, sanitary-ware, H.T. and L.T. Insulators, hospital ware, chemical porcelain, electro ceramics, kiln furniture, special ceramics, decorative wares, toys, figurines and bone china. Government of India has identified the Khurja Ceramic Cluster as the growth center for export. A number of manufacturer associations with knowledge support from research institute, development center is dedicated to day-to-day upgradation of technology

Recently Khurja has also developed a flourishing meat industry. Most of the meat processed here, is exported to Middle East.

History of Industry in Khurja

The history of Khurja Pottery goes back to about 600 years ago, when some of the potters' families moved from Delhi to Khurja during reign of Emperor Mohammad-bin-Tughlak. Starting with red clay pottery they moved on to blue glaze and on red clay articles with engobe of white clay, painting floral designs with cupric oxide and applying a soft glaze containing glass and borax etc.

During World War II, ban was imposed on various metals for making household utensils and import of ceramic goods was drastically curtailed. To meet the demand of ceramic wares mainly for war hospitals, the Government of Uttar Pradesh established a ceramic unit. After the war, the factory was closed down in 1946 due to lack of demand of its products. The factory was equipped with three small kilns, two chimneys and three ball mills. The Government of Uttar Pradesh made a thoughtful consideration for the utilization of the available machinery, other capital items and instead of closing it down, converted into a Pottery Development Centre. It was the first pottery related to common facilities Center in the country where entrepreneurs were provided the facilities for firing their green wares in the Govt. kilns on payments of a nominal charge.

The development activities of U.P. Small Industrial Corporation Ltd. resulted in setting up of UPSIC Potteries Ltd. in 1976-77. There was a widespread complaint about the efficiency of the UPSIC Potteries Ltd., primarily because of high costs. The Government of Uttar Pradesh set up a panel in Nov.1990 to examine the working of the corporation and to consider the proposal of passing of the commercial activities back to the Pottery Development Centre (Local Office of Directorate of Industries).

Khurja also hosts one of the Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute (CG&CRI). Khurja Centre opened its office in the premises of UPSIC Potteries Ltd. in 1981 and permanently shifted to the newly constructed campus during 1982-83. CGCRI has been continuously providing testing and technical facilities to the units for their upliftment. It works independently and is serving adequately for the growth of Ceramic Industry in the state of Uttar Pradesh. UPSICPL started their production in the year 1982 with the tunnel kiln and continued up to 1990, when it closed. By the efforts of CGCRI, Khurja Center, the unit again started production of ceramic liners for Chulhas and in 1995 however was closed again.

Though an industrial region, Khurja severely lacks the infrastructure for good industry by European standards. Nonetheless, industry has flourished there. Since there are often power cuts lasting around eight hours, all factories and most homes have private generators. The municipality water supply is not enough for everybody's need so everybody has water pumps, pumping groundwater.

Khurja Logistic Park

Khurja is a meeting point of eastern and western dedicated rail corridor. Arshiya International Ltd's upcoming FTWZ (Free Trade and Warehousing Zone) in Khurja is very strategically located connecting the Western & Eastern freight corridors with the manufacturing hub of India in the NCR. These special zones offer customized warehousing facilities to help add value or store, before organized shipment. As part of a fully integrated infrastructure, Arshiya plans to additionally invest in creating a dedicated Rail Terminal with the FTWZ in Khurja that would allow pan-India connectivity for its customers through its dedicated Rail Infrastructure service .Shaheed dataram chowk situated in near laxmi cinama.

Geography

Khurja is located at 28.25°N 77.85°E / 28.25; 77.85. It has an average elevation of 197 metres (646 foot).

Demographics

As of 2001 India census, Khurja had a population of 98,403. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Khurja has an average literacy rate of 53%, lower than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 60%, and female literacy is 45%. In Khurja, 16% of the population is under 6 years of age.

External links

• Bulandshahar district website

Shaheed Dataram NagarLocated Khurja-Sikandrabad road