Vadodara holds a special importance in the state because of the rapid growth of industrial, commercial, educational, education, arts and business cultural activities in the city. Situated on the banks of the river Vishwamitri, Vadodara represents a unique.government organizations that have their base in the city. Baroda is also part of the Ankleshwar - Baroda belt of petrochemical companies.
It is also the home of the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, which is the largest university in Gujarat. Major industries include petrochemicals, engineering, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, plastics and Forex.
the city celebrates all religious and cultural festivals with verve and enthusiasm. The people of Baroda like to tell visitors that their city is a ‘Sanskari Nagari’, that is, a ‘cultured city’.The city does indeed have rich cultural traditions.
A large number of corporates are headquartered here. The upcoming IT park at Baroda, had been attracting many firms recently. Many entrepreneurs and corporates that emerged from here made an Intentional repute recently. Bank of Baroda, one of the largest chain of branches and atm in the country was started here. In the recent times growth of E-Commerce Business has increased immensely from Vadodara.Some of Barodian Sellers Top the charts of best sellers in their respective categories on famous marketplaces. Accessories Master (ACM) , ECellStreet.Com (ECS) top the charts on ebay.in and amazon.in respectively.Some of the other well known e- commerce businesses operating from Baroda are phoolbul.com,badabargain.com,purchasekaro.com etc.
Vadodara various large-scale industries such as Indian Oil Corporation(IOCL), Gujarat State Fertilizers & Chemicals (GSFC), Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (IPCL, now owned by Reliance Industries Limited) and Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Limited (GACL) have come up in the vicinity of Gujarat Refinery and all of them are dependent on it for their fuel and feedstock. Other large-scale public sector units are Heavy Water Project, Gujarat Industries Power Company Limited (GIPCL), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) & Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL). In addition to these public sector enterprises, a number of other large-scale enterprises have come up in the private sector such as Bombardier Transportation, a Canadian company manufacturing the Delhi Metro from its site in Savli along with other manufacturing companies such as Alstom, Areva, Mahindra, Apollo, Thermax, Siemens etc.[citation needed] Vadodara is also taking big leaps in Service Industry along with the aforementioned manufacturing companies. L&T has established "Knowledge City" at Waghodia. Recently MasterCard opened its tech hub at the city.
With Vadodara accounting for over 35 per cent of India's power transmission and distribution (T&D) equipment manufacturers and home to an estimated 800 ancillaries supporting the big players in Power Sector equipment manufacturing and engineering industry, Vadodara is the Power Equipment Manufacturing Hub of India.
Air:-- Vadodara Airport (IATA: BDQ) is located north-east of the city. Vadodara has air connectivity with Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad. A new terminal at Vadodara airport is under construction which will be completed in 2016 by which Vadodara is set to have an International Airport by 2016.
Railway:-- Vadodara was part of the historic Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway (BBCI), which arrived in the city in January 1861.[25] On 5 November 1951 the BBCI Railway was merged with the Saurashtra, Rajputana and Jaipur railways to create the Western Railway. Vadodara Railway Station now belongs to the Western Railway zone of Indian Railways and is a major junction on the Western Railway Main Line.
Vadodara Junction railway station is Gujarat's busiest junction with almost 150 trains passing through every day.It comes under Vadodara Division of Western railways Passengers can travel to almost all the parts of India from Vadodara Junction, where there is a junction from the directions of Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Kota (all four directions). It has one of the largest electric locomotives sheds in Gujarat and various trains have a loco change over at Vadodara. Trains such as Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duranto and important mail/express trains halt at Vadodara Junction. Apart from various small railway stations Vadodara has 10 major railway stations namely Vadodara Junction (BRC'), Pratapnagar, Vishwamitri, Makarpura, Karajan (Miyagaon), Itola, Varnama, Bajwa, Ranoli and Nandesari.citation needed
Road:-- National Highway 8, connecting Delhi and Gandhinagar with Ahmedabad to Surat and Mumbai, passes through the city. Vadodara is also connected with Ahmedabad through Indian National Expressway 1, a 97 kilometres (60 mi) stretch of super highway with exits at Anand, Nadiad, S.P.Ring Road and finally Ahmedabad. In the near future, this expressway will be extended southwards from Vadodara all the way up to Mumbai. The necessary land acquisition work is in progress and the government has placed the project on a fast track priority.
A bus rapid transport system (BRTS) for the city is planned for the future.
Statistics regarding roads in Vadodara
Paved Roads: 1,680 kilometres (1,040 mi)
Unpaved Roads: 400 kilometres (250 mi)
Total Roads: 2,080 kilometres (1,290 mi)
Nazarbaug Palace:--Built in old classical style, the palace was used on ceremonial occasions by the Gaekwads.
Lakshmi Vilas Palace:-- It is an extravagant building in Indo- Saracenic style and was built by Maharaja Sayajirao in 1890. The palace houses a remarkable collection of old armoury and sculptures in bronze, marble and terracotta.
Vadodara Museum:-- The museum boastd of an excellent art collection of works by Indian artists and European Masters.
Kirti Mandir:-- TMeaning 'Hall of Fame', it is a memorial for the Gaekwad rulers designed in the Hindu style.
Makarpura Palace:-- It is a beautiful palace designed in the Italianate style and is now used as a training school of the Indian Air Force.
Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad University:-- The erstwhile ruler of Baroda, Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad built Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad University. It is one of the bigger universities in Western India and the only one in Vadodara.
Shoolpaneshwar Wildlife Sanctuary :-- abundant flora/fauna and wild life.
Vadodara has a vibrant history related to Art and Architecture. Since the era of Royal Gaekwad family, it has been a hub of Arts and Literature. Hence, it has been bestowed the title of "Kala Nagari".
Sports:--Vadodara has a professional cricket team, the Baroda cricket team, as well as the oldest cricket ground in Asia, called Moti Baug.[30] The team has won the Ranji Trophy six times. There is also a private cricket ground owned by Reliance Industries, which hosts ODIs. Some of the notable cricketer's from Baroda are Atul Bedade, Nayan Mongia, Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan, Hardik Pandya, Kiran More, Krunal Pandya, Deepak Hooda,Ambati Rayudu. Football is also a famous sport played in the city. VMSS also launched one indoor sports complex located at Sama & one outdoor sports complex located at Manjalpur. Besides this the VMC is also coming up with a new swimming complex in karelibuag area of the city. The city has Bal Bhavan an institution which provides professional training in sports like lawn tennis, table tennis, badminton with cultural activities.
Media:--Vadodara has a number of newspaper publications. Apart from various English-language dailies sold in the city, Times of India, Indian Express and The Economic Times are largely circulated throughout the city. There are three local Gujarati dailies in the city – Sandesh, Gujarat Samachar and Divya Bhaskar. A large number of national and regional magazines, periodicals and journals are regularly published and circulated across the city.
The Gujarati film and television industry has a small but significant presence in the city. The city has five local FM stations: Radio Mirchi (98.3 MHz), Red FM (93.5 MHz), Big FM (92.7 MHz), Radio City (91.1 MHz) and All India Radio, Vividh Bharti (93.9 MHz)(Aakashwani). All India Radio is broadcast on the AM band.[31] Satellite radio was launched in nearby city of Ahmedabad by WorldSpace in 2005.[32] Vadodara News Magazine(VNM) is a local news TV channel that covers events in the city. Where Aaj Tak is carrying news of the city having national impact. Households receive television through two main cable networks, InCablenet and Siti Cable, while DTH is steadily gaining popularity in Vadodara.
Our Vadodara is an Online Media that was started in 2011 and cover every aspects of Vadodara. A network of optical fibre cables connects almost the entire city. The city's telephone services are provided by landline and mobile operators like BSNL, Reliance Infocomm, Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Uninor, Videocon and Tata Indicom. Broadband Internet services are provided in most parts of the city by the telecom companies. In the era of Technology, there are number of Applications on city too that provides detailed knowledge about the city. One of them is Vadodara Guide Android App, which is offline. Installations of 4G have completed in many areas of Vadodara by Reliance Jio Infocomm