Biratnagar () is a metropolitan city in Nepal, which serves as the capital of Province No. 1. With a population of 242,548 as per the 2011 census, it is the largest city in the province and also the headquarters of Morang district. As per the preliminary report of 2021 Nepal census, Biratnagar has an estimated city population of 244,750. 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. Biratnagar is located east of the capital, Kathmandu, and north of the bordering town of Jogbani in the Indian state of Bihar. Biratnagar was declared a metropolitan city on 22 May 2017, a merger with additional wards pushing the total population to over 240,000. It is the sixth most populous city of Nepal after Kathmandu, Pokhara, Bharatpur, Lalitpur and Birgunj, with 244,750 inhabitants living in 45,204 households as per 2021 Nepal census. It is the most densely populated city among all cities out of the Kathmandu Valley. The city is home to the Biratnagar Jute Mills, the first large-scale industry of Nepal. Besides being considered as the industrial capital of Nepal, the city has contributed actively to the Nepalese democracy movement by being the birthplace of five prime ministers of democratic Nepal. The latter claim is also evident from the fact that the first labor strike leading to the anti-Rana movement started from Biratnagar. Modern-day Biratnagar serves as an entry point to eastern Nepal as well as north-eastern India. It is the second Nepalese city, after Janakpur, to have a connection with the Indian Railways and the only city other than Birgunj to operate an integrated check post (ICP) on the Indian border. History In 1914, Colonel Jit Bahadur Khatri, the then district governor, laid the foundations of modern Biratnagar by moving the hospital, post office, prison and the customs, land registry, forestry and auditor offices to Gograha Bazaar from Rangeli, the then district capital of Morang. Recorded history of Biratnagar dates back to beginning of the 7th century, when King Mung Mawrong Hang came to prominence in the terai lands of Limbuwan (present-day Sunsari, Morang and Jhapa area). He cleared much of the forest area in present-day Rangeli, east of Biratnagar, and built a town there. He named his