*Something About My Home Town Patratu*

GEOGRAPHY

Patratu is located at 23.67ºN 85.28ºE.  It has an average elevation of 405 metres (1328 feet). Patratu dam is constructed under the planning of the greatest Indian engineer and father of Indian engineering "SIR MOKSHAGUNDAM” and this dam is only 40 km away from Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, from where it can be reached by road in less than an hour. It is directly connected to Ranchi, Patna, Jaipur, Jamshedpur, Varanasi, Jammu, Jabalpur, Allahabad, Delhi, Kolkata by train.

PATRATU DAM

The dam was made to store water of Nalkari River; this is the main attraction of Patratu. One can see flying fishes during sunrise by sitting at the coast of the Dam. Boating has been started from 14 January 2010 on dam.The dam has huge capacity and if given a face-lift, would definitely attract tourists from different areas.

PATRATU VALLEY

Flanked by hills covered with lush green trees, red and violet flowers and honey bees humming, the Pithouria-Patratu Valley is no less attractive than the valleys on the Gangtok-Nathula,Dehradun-Mussouri and Raxaul-Kathmandu roads in terms of natural elegance. Of course, the hills along the Pithouria-Patratu stretch are devoid of snow, unlike the ones on Gangtok-Nathula. But green saal, sakhuwa and bamboos with flowers, in a riot of colours, more than make up for the absence of snow. 

PATRATU THERMAL POWER STATION

The attraction of this city is its natural habitat and scenic beauty. The city is developed as a residential area for employees of Patratu Thermal Power Station. This thermal power station was made by Russian collaboration in 1962 and has two chimneys made by Russian firm which are called Russian side and the other two chimneys are made by Indian firm so it is called Indian side. The plant has a power generation capacity of 840MW. According to the JSEB(Jharkhand state electricity board) Web site, Patratu has six Russian units of 36 to 42 years old and four BHEL manufactured units of 26–31 years old.

JINDAL STEEL AND POWER LIMITED

Carrying on with its plans of expansion, JSPL plans to invest US $ 6.00 billion (Rs. 30,000 Crore) in the state of Jharkhand for establishing a steel plant of capacity 11 MTPA and captive power plant with production capacity of 2600 MW in phases.The company is setting up a 6.0 million TPA steel plant and 1609 MW captive power plant (CPP) at Patratu and it plans to set up a 5.0 MTPA steel plant and a 1000 MW CPP at Asanboni. At Patratu JSPL has taken over the assets of the closed Bihar Alloys & Steel Limited, which is about 40 km from Ranchi. Using the available land and adding some more, the company is setting up new steel and power plants. This endeavour would provide gainful employment to a large number of people and aid in economic and infrastructure development of the area.