Nagpur

Introduction

Nagpur is a city in the state of Maharashtra, and is the largest city in the tribal central India and also the third largest city by population in the state of Maharashtra and has a population of around 2,420,000. Nagpur is also known throughout the country as "Orange City" for being a major trade centre of oranges.

Neighbourhoods

Sights and Activities

• Ambazari lake and garden
• Shri Ganesha Temple
• Dragon Temple in Kamptee
• Shri Shantinath Jain Temple in Ramtek
• Telankadi or Futala Lake.
• Kasturchand Park.
• The botanical gardens
• Shukrawari Lake.
• Telankhedi Hanuman Temple & Gardens.
• Taj Bagh
• Raman Science Center
• Maharaj Bagh
• Lake garden Sakkardara.
• Japanese rose garden
• Musical Garden
• Seminary Hills & Air Force Station
• Parsi Cemetery
• Bohra Masjid it is a very big and beautiful mosque, at Itwari
• World class cricket stadium controlled by Vidarbha Cricket Association, popularly known as "VCA".
• Sonegaon Lake, Khamla Road (South). Migratory birds are seen in winters (November - February).

Events and Festivals

Marbat

Marbat is celebrated only in the Nagpur region, especially in the Nagpur city. People prepare statues of evil forces and take out procession in this festival. These statues are burnt at the end, and assumed that all evil forces are burnt. It is believed that the city would be free from all types of evils after it.

Ramjanam

This festival is organized on the birthday of Ramchandra. Ramjanam is celebrated with great enthusiasm and brotherhood in Nagpur. A rath yatra is taken out from the Ram Mandir to major parts of the city. Rath yatra is the procession of God Shri Ramchandraji on chariot. The rath yatra wraps up at the same location where it started. To welcome Ram Chandraji, nearly 200,000 people gathers on both sides of the streets. Procession starts with the youngsters on skating wearing traditional dresses. Tribal dances are also performed in front of the chariot. Wearing masks of different Gods, like Ganesh and Hanuman, young boys and girls march ahead of chariot.

Weather

Nagpur faces extreme variations in temperature with very hot summers and relatively mild winters and a relative humidity of 60%.

Seasons

Nagpur district enjoys three major seasons. Monsoon sets in the month of June. It is at its peak in July and August. July and first two weeks of August is the best time to enjoy rain in Nagpur.

Summer is really hot. Temperature shoots up to 45 °C. Sometimes even higher than that but for only few days. In these days the air is dry and hot with slight wind moments. This is not a right season to visit Nagpur District.

The best time to enjoy travel in Nagpur is in the winter season. The season though starts from October but from November to end of January is the best time. These days temperature goes below 15 °C at night sometimes. For only a few days it goes even below 12 °C. Air blow is calm and dry. Light winter clothing is must in these days, especially during the chilly evenings/nights.

Getting There

By Plane

Sonegaon airport connects Nagpur to Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, Bhubaneswar and Raipur. International flights include destinations such as Sharjah, Bangkok and Doha.

By Train

Nagpur has trains to and from Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Kolhapur, Pune, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Jammu, Amritsar, Lucknow, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Trivandrum, Cochin, Gorakhpur, Visakhapatnam, Bangalore, Mangalore, Patna and Indore.

By Car

Nagpur is well connected to most industrial centres of the country. National Highways passing through Nagpur are Mumbai - Kolkata NH-6 & Kanyakumari - Varanasi NH-7.

Getting Around

Autos are easily available within the city and the drivers in Nagpur are some of the very few in the country who do not try to fleece passengers.

The recently started Star Bus Service is quite popular with the locals.

Eat

Nagpur has a lot of good places to eat.

For non-veggies, many hotels in Momin pura (this neighbourhood is a must visit during month of Ramzan), Sadar, specially Biryanies, Babbu Hotel, M.L.A Canteen, Tanveer Hotel, Babban Hotel and many more in Mominpura. Hotel AlZam-Zam in C A Road, Babbu's Hotel in Dharampeth. each of these hotels have branches in many places in nagpur.

The best continental can be savoured at 10 Downing Street in Ramdas Peth and Fountain Sizzlers & Bistro for amazing sizzlers. Mount Road near Sadar is the best hang-out for foodies. Ashoka for continental or Indian, Nanking for Chinese, Barbecue for Punjabi (Indian), Veeraswamy's and Kamat for South-Indian Food. 'Zinq' an Italian restro-lounge is a great place for authentic Italian food. Zinq has also opened 'Masala' and 'China' restaurants recently for Indian and Chinese cuisine respectively. V5, a group of 5 different restaurants including a bar, a family restaurant and a disco is a neat establishment. Also Village Tadka on outer ring road serves excellent Saoji cuisine.

Haldiram's is also a good place to eat. It also provides packed food for air/railway passengers. Some of the restaurants of the hotels also offer a great dinner opportunity like Tuli's 'Frontier Post' for Afghani food (peshawari naan and frontier dal recommended) and LB's 'Drums of Heaven'. The Pride Hotel, a favourite amongst air-travelers due to its proximity to the airport, holds numerous food festivals throughout the year for food conneussiers. For food on the run The Kathi Crossing near VCA Ground, Poonam Chambers Byramji Town, Pratap Nagar and LAD Collge offer amazing rolls which are a meal in themselves.

A special recipe of Chicken known as "Saoji Chicken" is one of the famous dishes which you will get exclusively in Nagpur. It is a very spicy dish.

For street food, roadside carts are lined up with pani puri, Chat, Pav Bhaji and the Indianised version of Chinese noodles and Manchurian at Bajaj nagar and Yeshwant Stadium. It has one of the biggest Grocery market in Central India near Shaheed Chowk. Shaheed chowk (square) is also very famous in the night for variety of street foods.

There is also a place for people who are on tight on budget namely "Calcutta Rolls". It is located in Sadar and there is one near Shankar Nagar Square as well.

Drink

You can find numerous places in Nagpur for variety of drinks. Almost, all the hotels in City are fully licensed. There is lot of diversity amongst the drinks, you will find.

Sleep

You can use the form below to search for availability (Travellerspoint receives a commission for bookings made through the form)

Keep Connected

Internet

There's good coverage over most of India for Internet cafes. However, following the recent terror attacks in Mumbai and some other cities, all internet cafes have been instructed by the authorities to maintain a register and note down the identification details of all persons using internet. Sify iWay is a reliable and cheap cafe with over 1,600 cafes over India. iWay also allows you to open a pre-paid account that you can use all over India. Whenever you have Internet access probably the best and cheapest way to call family and friends at home is software that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet such as Skype.

Wifi hotspots in India are, for most part, limited. The major airports and stations do offer paid wifi at around RS.60-100 an hour. Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai are the only cities with decent wifi coverage. At Mumbai airport, you get to use WiFi internet free, for an hour or so.

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

The country code for India is 91. To dial outside the country from India, prefix the country code with 00.

The general emergency number is 100 (emergency response police & fire), while for ambulance you should dial 102 or 112, though some regions have 108 for this emergency. 108 is used in in the Indian states of Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Goa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha,Assam, Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. 108 can be called for medical, crime, fire, or any other emergency from any phone.

Local phone numbers can be anywhere from 5-8 digits long. But when the area code is included, all landline phone numbers in India are 10 digits long. Cellphone numbers usually start with '9', '8', or '7'. Toll-free numbers start with 1-800.

If staying longterm it is probably wise to think about investing in a mobile phone. You'll possibly need to provide a photocopy of your passport and itinerary, so come prepared. Make sure you arrange it upon arrival in a big city, as it can sometimes be difficult to organise with language barriers and such in more regional areas. You can buy a cheap nokia for about RS.1,200 with a pre-paid plan. Airtel is a good carrier to think about as they have great coverage, and constant offers for cheaper calling. To recharge, most shop vendors with phone carrier signs can do it via their own phone. You give them your mobile number, they put it in their phone and you'll both get messages as to whether or not the recharge has been successful. Also, if possible, buy the phone in the state where you do the most travelling as the charges are higher in the states where you did not originally buy the phone.

Over the entire country there are plenty of public phones, even in the middle of the countryside. Although most of the time these phones are not very well maintained and have horrible connections. Therefore remember when using one of these public phones one must be extremely patient.
For international calls from payphones, you'll have to visit a reputable internet cafe with a phone-booth. Mobile phones are usually a better and cheaper option.

Post

India Post is the national postal service of India, and on their website you find details about prices to send postcards, letters and parcels, both domestically and internationally. For most postcards to send internationally, it is better to visit the post office before writing on the card as you may need quite a few stamps. Parcels must be taken to a tailor, he will then sew it up in white linen. Make sure he seals it with red wax, otherwise the post office may refuse to send it or try to get you to pay them to do it. Sewing up a parcel should only cost RS.50 to 200. In general, post offices are open from 10:00am to 1:00pm and 1:30pm to 4:30pm in most bigger towns and cities, though there are regional variations and some might keep longer hours or be open during (part of) the weekend as well. Ask around.

If you want to send bigger packages/parcels, it might be better, faster and sometimes even cheaper, to contact a private company like DHL, TNT or UPS.

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