Few Indian cities carry the weight of national ambition as visibly as Durgapur. Conceived in the late 1940s by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and West Bengal Chief Minister Bidhan Chandra Roy as a showcase of post-independence industrial might, and meticulously planned by American architects Joseph Allen Stein and Benjamin Polk in 1955, Durgapur rose from forested riverbanks and coalfield fringes to become what Nehru proudly called a 'temple of modern India'.