The Centre was established on July 27 , 1970 at Bhubaneswar, Odisha pertaining language training in 3 major languages of Eastern India, i.e., Assamese, Bengali, Odia. In April, 2005 Assamese department was shifted to NERLC, Guwahati. In July, 2006 two more languages, i.e., Maithili and Santali were introduced into the curriculum of ERLC, after which the Centre is imparting language education in 4 languages, i.e., Bengali, Maithili, Odia and Santali. The Centre is functioning with a complete set up in a beautiful campus measuring 7.204 acres provided by Govt. of Odisha on lease along with 14 old asbestos roof buildings. With the supervision of the CPWD, Bhubaneswar wing, construction of ERLC Administrative-cum-Faculty building and Hostel-cum-Guest House building are going on in full swing and may be handed over to ERLC within 3 to 4 months. Presently, the centre runs with only one permanent faculty in Odia language and 7 guest lecturers.
The Centre has provided language training to 3230 trainees for 4 languages up to the academic session 2019-20 as follows: Assamese – 880, Bengali – 1457, Maithili – 131, Odia – 655, Santali - 154
