Shri Dharmendra Pradhan unveils foundation plaque of Suryavan, a forest resort near Satkosia

“What the world is searching for is at our doorstep”: Surya Hospitality Group opens a new chapter for Central Odisha tourism, with the region’s people, leaders and administration on one stage

Angul: Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon’ble Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha), Sambalpur, today unveiled the foundation plaque of Suryavan, a forest resort being developed by Surya Eco Resorts Private Limited, a venture of Surya Hospitality Group, at Gurudhi in Angul district, beside the Satkosia landscape. Construction will take about two and a half years.
Present at this ceremony were the Hon’ble Member of Parliament for Dhenkanal, Shri Rudra Narayan Pani; the Hon’ble Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Angul, Shri Pratap Chandra Pradhan; the Hon’ble MLA for Pallahara and Chairman of the District Planning Committee, Shri Ashok Mohanty; the Hon’ble MLA for Chendipada, Shri Agasti Behera; the Hon’ble MLA for Jagatsinghpur, Shri Amarendra Das; the former Hon’ble MLA for Athamallik, Shri Sanjeeb Sahu; the former Hon’ble Member of Parliament for Dhenkanal, Shri Mahesh Sahu; the Chairperson of Talcher Municipality, Shri Pabitra Bhutia; Dr. Mridula Thakur Pradhan; the Zonal Manager of Punjab National Bank, Shri Bhushan Sharma; the Sarpanch of Saradhapur Gram Panchayat, Smt. Lashmipriya Sahu. And Samiti member Shri Radhakanta Palei, among others, was present. A large number of villagers from 10–11 panchayats in the vicinity of Satkosia also participated in this programme.
Welcoming the guests, Biswajit Pattnaik, Managing Director, said: “People travel thousands of kilometers in search of peace, clean air, the sound of a river and the silence of a forest. What the world is searching for is at our doorstep. The world simply does not know yet that it is here.”
He explained the name: Surya, the sun, is the source of all energy, without which no forest can exist; Van is the forest that turns that light into life. The resort’s land meets the Satkosia forest at its rear, and Suryavan is designed as a natural extension of that landscape. “Many will call Suryavan Odisha’s first jungle resort,” he said. “We are not interested in being first. We want to be the one that belongs to this soil.”

For years Odisha was called “India’s best kept secret”. Echoing the state’s new call, “Think India, Think Odisha”, the Managing Director added a line of his own: think of Odisha, think of Central Odisha; think of Central Odisha, think of Satkosia. He described a single circuit from Dhenkanal to Athmallik, from Kapilas, Joranda and the Dhokra craft of Dhenkanal, through Talcher’s Anantashayan and Maa Hingula, to the Mahanadi gorge of Satkosia, Maa Binkei, the Deulajhari hot springs and the Mahanadi sunsets of Athmallik, and said that over the next two and a half years the group would tell the stories of this circuit to the world.
Responsible Tourism is at the core of the project. Suryavan has received IGBC Platinum pre-certification for its green design and is being planned around the land’s natural slope, trees and water. Local young people will get first preference in jobs and training, and local produce and craft will reach the resort’s guests. The group also expressed its commitment to support, with the guidance of the government, Satkosia’s growth into one of the country’s leading tiger reserves and wildlife destinations.
The ceremony featured the first look at Suryavan through a walkthrough film, and a Central Odisha tourism film created by young storytellers Alok & Nihar, DT Originals. A sapling was also planted at the site, its sign reading: “Come back and see how I have grown.”
Proposing the vote of thanks, Mr. Pritam Patnaik, Director, said: “A place whose story no one tells is a place no one visits. Atithi Devo Bhava is not only the mantra of our business; it is the culture of this soil. Tomorrow, when the world comes to Odisha as our guest, we will not stand alone to welcome it. All of Central Odisha will stand with us.”