Raurkela: In line with a state-wide initiative to align place names with local Odia pronunciation, the steel city of Rourkela has officially changed its English spelling to “RAURKELA.”
According to an official notification issued by the Office of the Additional District Magistrate, Raurkela, following directions from the Revenue & Disaster Management Department dated July 20, the updated spelling “RAURKELA” must now be used across all official government correspondence, public records, legal documents, reports, notifications, and public signage.
The modification forms part of a broader decision by the Odisha government to revise the spellings of 64 prominent places across the state. The initiative aims to discard anglicized spellings leftover from colonial-era cartography in favour of phonetically accurate transliterations reflecting indigenous Odia pronunciations.
Under this order, “Cuttack” was officially changed to “Kataka”, and the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) is now officially referred to as the Kataka Municipal Corporation. Several other district headquarters and major towns have also undergone spelling revisions based on Odia pronunciation. While Bolangir will be spelled as Balangir, Balasore will change to Baleshwar. Nilgiri will be Nilagiri and Bargarh will be spelt as Baragada.
Correction in the spellings of the names of 64 places was recommended by a high-level committee led by eminent litterateur Prativa Ray, as a part of the government’s initiative under its Odia Asmita campaign.