NH 55
Cuttack–Sambalpur Highway
340 km
Open
Odisha
National Highway
Route
NH 55 runs 340 km from Choudwar, Odisha to Sambalpur, Odisha.
Crosses Odisha.
Through Choudwar, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Athagad, Biswanathpur and Sambalpur.
Why it matters
Odisha's minerals leave the interior on roads like this one. It joins the coalfields and smelters of Angul to the coastal cities and ports.
History
National Highway 55 runs west from Cuttack through Dhenkanal and Angul to Sambalpur, straight through the industrial heart of Odisha. Angul is aluminium and power country — the NALCO smelter and the Talcher coalfields are both on this road — and Sambalpur sits beside the Hirakud dam on the Mahanadi. It is one of the busiest freight roads in the state.
Good to know
- Runs through Angul and Talcher, Odisha's coal, power and aluminium belt.
- Sambalpur, at its western end, sits beside the Hirakud dam, one of the longest earthen dams in the world.
- It carries a very heavy load of coal and aluminium lorries.
- Cuttack, at the eastern end, was the capital of Odisha until 1948.
On the road
Constant heavy truck traffic, especially between Talcher and Cuttack. Overtaking is slow and the road surface takes a beating from coal lorries.
More details
- Lanes
- 2–4 lanes