The name of the town was actually nag-dah which means cremation/burning (dah) of snakes (nag). The ancient city was developed by king Janmejay. Janmejay was a Hindu King of Pandava Dynasty. Nagda was mentioned in the literature of Kalidasa. Presently, Nagda is a major industrial town having manufacturing unit of Viscose fibre, thermal power plant and a chemical plant, It is a major ISO granted railway junction on the Delhi-Mumbai railway line.It is exactly 694 km from both delhi as well as mumbai.
Prior to being an industrial town, Nagda was a small village. The location near river Chambal and availability of acres of land attracted Ghanshyam Das Birla to set up a major facility. Today Nagda is one of the largest viscose staple fiber manufacturers in Asia
