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Its proud possession of magnificent sculptures and architectural heritage, coupled with the sanctity as Ekamrakshetra make this one of the great religious centres of Odisha since early medieval days. With its large number of Hindu temples (over 600 in number), which span the entire spectrum of Kalinga architecture, Bhubaneswar is often referred to as a Temple City of India. Together with Puri and Konark and, Bhubaneswar forms the 'Swarna Tribhuja' (the 'Golden Triangle'), one of the most visited destinations in East India. The modern city of Bhubaneswar was designed by the German architect Otto Königsberger in 1946. Like Jamshedpur and Chandigarh, it is one of the first planned cities of modern India. With the Chandaka reserve forest on the fringes, the city, with an abundance of in-city greenery and an efficient civic body (the BMC), has become one of the cleanest and greenest cities of India. Bhubaneswar replaced Cuttack as the political capital of the state of Odisha in 1948, a year after India gained its independence from Britain. Bhubaneswar and Cuttack are often commonly together known as the "twin cities" of Odisha. The metropolitan area formed by the twin cities has a 2008 population of 1.9 million and The World gazetteer estimates the metro area population as 1,666,429 making it the 22nd largest urban centre in the country. Bhubaneswar is categorized as a tier 2 city. An emerging IT hub, the boom in the metals and metal processing industries have made Bhubaneswar one of the fastest developing cities of India in recent years. |