Itarsi

Located almost in the middle of India, Itarsi is a city that is found just south of Hoshangabad city in the Hoshangabad district, in Madhya Pradesh. The city has long been well-known as an important agricultural hub and exchange, and it is also famous for being an equally important important railroad junction.

The area has an average elevation of about 305 meters. The 2001 Indian census states that it has a population of 93,783 people, with the males making up 52% of it. The majority of the people in the city are quite literate and this is reflected by Itarsi’s literacy rate of 75% which, when compared to the national average of 59.5%, is high indeed. While the city used to be agricultural, it has caught up with modernization and is now a good amalgamation of agriculture and technology.

The name Itarsi comes from the words Intt which means brick and Rassi, or rope. Both these products used to be traded around the town and as such, became the basis of how old Itarsi came to be known. Across the years, the town steadily attracted immigrants and traders, and pretty soon, Itarsi became one of Hoshangabad district’s more developed cities.

There are a wide range of activities that are economically viable, which means that there are more chances for the average person to land a job. Itarsi is an area that is rich in minerals, and creates popular handcrafted clothes and wears, as well as many traditional handmade crafts. To say that the traditional methods of earning a living is living side by side with modern amenities and jobs is not a stretch of expression: Itarsi is a melding of both the old and the new.

Industries in the city include the ordnance factory and some soya mills. Another thing that is of economic interest in Itarsi is the large agricultural market center (known as a mandi) which is the agricultural hub of the district.. The economy is also strongly connected to the banking sector, which has witnessed a boom in recent years. As a result, there have been many bank-related jobs such as tellers, managers and couriers.

Itarsi is most famous, however, as being one of the central railway points of India; it is the biggest and one of the oldest railway junctions in Madhya Pradesh. Important east-west and north-south routes cross it, and it comes under the West Central Railway zone which is headquartered in Jabalpur. Itarsi is also connected via the newer broad gauge lines to Delhi and Bhopal to the north and Mumbai and Bhusawal to the west, while the east and south are connected by railway junctions, via Jabalpur and Nagpur, respectively. The rail services from Mumbai to Calcutta and Delhi to Chennai also pass through Itarsi.