The reason the city exists. Built in the late 1950s in partnership with West German engineering firms, the Rourkela Steel Plant was India's first integrated steel plant and remains one of the largest in the country, owned today by the public-sector Steel Authority of India. From a distance the cooling towers, chimneys, and rolling mills loom over the township like a small mountain range, lit up orange at night when the furnaces are tapped.
The plant itself is closed to general visitors, but the surrounding Steel Township is interesting in its own right: wide tree-lined roads, sector after sector of company housing, and a planned-city feel that is rare in India. The plant guesthouse and the old German engineers' colony give the place an unexpected mid-century flavour.