Dharan

Dharan (धरान) is a sub-metropolitan city in Sunsari District of Koshi Province, Nepal, which was established as a fourth municipality in the Kingdom in 1958. It is the third most populous city in Eastern Nepal after Biratnagar and Itahari. The Nepali word "dharan" means a saw pit. The rainforest from which the tree trunks came is still just on the edge of the city. Much later the British Gurkha camp opened in October 1960. The use of the camp by British Gurkhas finished in the mid 1990s. Dharan has an estimated city population of 173,096 living in 34,834 households as per the 2021 Nepal census. It is one of the cities of the Greater Birat Development Area which incorporates the cities of Biratnagar-Itahari-Gothgau-Biratchowk-Dharan primarily located on the Koshi Highway in Eastern Nepal, with an estimated total urban agglomerated population of 804,300 people living in 159,332 households. It is the largest city in the province number one by Area. It covers 192.32 square kilometers while Biratnagar and Itahari is 2nd and 3rd biggest cities by Area Dharan is situated on the foothills of the Mahabharat Range in the north with its southern tip touching the edge of the Terai region at an altitude of 1148 ft (349m). Dharan bazaar grew up near Phusre where the old walking route to Dhankuta and a large part of the Eastern hills left the plains with the ascent of Sanghuri Danra. In the days when villagers in the hills made their annual trek to sell and buy goods this was a natural location for a market where hills and Terai met. In 1952 the construction of the Kosi barrage began and a narrow gauge railway was built to take stone from Phusre loaded at a locality now known as "Railway" to the site of the barrage near the Indian Border. The Koshi highway runs through the heart of the city thus connecting it with the provincial capital of Biratnagar as well as the Itahari junction of the east–west Mahendra highway (lying 41 km and 17 km south, respectively), and the Nepal-China border of Kimathanka (lying 115 km north).