Hirakud is a small township located in the Sambalpur district of Odisha, India. Originally established as a Notified Area Council (NAC), it was later merged with Burla to form part of the Sambalpur Municipal Corporation.
The town serves as an industrial hub for HINDALCO, an Indian company specializing in the manufacturing of aluminium and copper. It is also home to the Hirakud Dam, which is recognized as one of the longest and largest dams in the world.
Constructed across the Mahanadi River, the dam connects two hills marked by the Gandhi Minar in the north and the Nehru Minar in the south. The shoreline of the dam spans approximately 640 km, and it possesses a generating capacity of 290MW.