BirganjBirganj is a sub-metropolitan municipality and border town in Parsa District in the Narayani Zone of southern Nepal. It lies 190 km west of the capital Kathmandu, 2 km north of the border of the Indian state of Bihar. As an entry point to Nepal from Patna and Calcutta it is also known as the gateway to Nepal. The town has significant economic importance for Nepal as a large part of goods enter Nepal through Birganj via Raxaul on the Indian side.
According to the 2001 census of Nepal it has a population of 112,484, there are several languages spoken in the town including Bhojpuri, Nepali, Maithili, Newari, Marwari and Hindi. It is the biggest city in Narayani Zone and is a headquarter of Parsa District.
Birganj is a major business centre of Nepal, especially for trade with India. Important industries are sugar refinery, cigarette manufacture and fish-breeding.
TransportBirganj was served by a station on a branch of Indian Railways which extends to Amlekhganj (Nepal).
Educational institutionsTribhuvan University, Thakur Ram Multiple Campus is the oldest institution in the Terai. The Golden Jubilee of this campus was celebrated in 2003. It has one institute Science and Technology and three faculties Arts, Commerce and Education in one campus.
[edit] 2006 unrest
Main article: 2006
Birganj unrestOn 18 May 2006 the parliament of Nepal declared that the country would now be a secular state. This led to unrest by Hindu fundamentalist groups across Nepal - the town of Birganj was forced to close for two days.[2] The NationalMedicalCollege,affiliated to the TribhuvanUniversity is also there.Spread out over a huge campus and also having a 1000 bedded hospital adjacent to the medical college,it is one of the premier medical colleges in the country.
