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Rourkela, one of India's most important industrial cities, is located in Sundergarh district of western Odisha. The area is rich in iron ore and due to this reason has many industrial plants located here. The city is considered Odisha's commercial capital because of the presence of the steel industry. The Steel authority of India (SAIL) has one of its biggest plants -The Rourkela Steel plant- located here. Rourkela has a hilly and undulating topography .The city was once surrounded by forests and today there are two reserved forests around the area of the city. The Durgapur forest lies in the north of the town and the Sonparbat reserve forest lies in the south. The Brahmani River flows in the west of the city. This seasonal river is formed by the confluence of two small tributaries the Koel and the Sankh and flows at the periphery of Rourkela city.

The largest Industrial Township of Orissa, Rourkela was under the administrative boundaries of the NAGARA sub-division under Ex- princely state of Gangapur state during British rule. In the year 1945 the Head quarter of Nagara sub-division was established at Panposh by the then ruler Raja Udit Pratap Shekhar Deo. Since ancient time Vedavyas which is in the other side of Panposh & river Brahmani is famous mythologically. It is also called as the second sangam as the confluence of two rivers named as Sankha and Koel with hidden river Saraswati creates Brahmani here. It is a mythological believe that the great epic “The Mahabharat” was written by Maharshi Vyash at this place. The river Brahamani is created from this sangam. The said name of the river is perhaps due to the birth place of Maharshi Vedavyash. During the later part of nineteenth century a big festival was organized by then Jamindar of Kuanramunda on the eve of SHIVRATRI or JAGAR which still in existence and organized in the month of March.