Ankleshwar is a city and a municipality in the Bharuch district of the state of Gujarat, India. The city is located approximately ten kilometres from Bharuch.
Ankleshwar is known for its industrial township called GIDC (Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation), which is one of the biggest in Asia. Ankleshwar also has an office of the ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited). Today, Ankleshwar has over 5000 big and small chemical plants. These chemical plants produce products such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals, specialty chemicals, and paint.
Petroleum additives like Sodium Petroleum Sulphonate having use in cutting oil emulsifier / metal working fluids, ore flotation, motor oil and fuel oil additives and anti corrosion compound, dispersant decreasing pigment grind time with increased pigment loading capacity and reducing flashing time and energy requirements and secondary corrosion inhibitor inks, flushes and coatings requiring pigment wetting and suspension Calcium Petroleum Sulphonate / Barium Petroleum Sulphonate having use in rust preventive agent, engine oil additives & emulsifier in pesticides are manufactured by Daxesh Petrochem Pvt. Ltd.
The multi product manufacturing organization, Kohinoor Group of Industries, has a plant to make active pharmaceutical ingredient, dyestuffs, pigments, hair colour and cosmetics in Ankleshwar. The multi-national firm Hoechst India Limited, which has become defunct, has a plant to make Rabies vaccine, pharmaceuticals and agro chemicals. Thus Hoechst sold its Rabies vaccine division to Chiron Behring Vaccine India which has now been taken over by Novartis. The Pharmaceutical plant is now run by Sanofi Aventis and the Agro Chemical plant is now run by Bayer.
All these above mentioned industries as well as domestic consumers are supplied eco-friendly piped natural gas by the Gujarat Gas Company Limited, a subsidiary of BG Group plc. Rather than this, Lupin ltd has one manufacturing plant at Ankleshwar. It Supplies the Ethambutol HCL in largest quantity in world.
Ankleshwar is well connected by Indian National Highway 8 (Mumbai to New Delhi) and by the Western Railway Division of Indian Railways. The railway division also runs the narrow gauged train services to Rajpipla. The 132 year-old Golden Bridge connects Ankleshwar to Bharuch across the Narmada on the station front while a new bridge connects the highway, the other bridge on the highway has been under maintenance for some time causing regular traffic jams at the four laned NH:8.
There are many auto rickshaws (3 wheeled passenger accommodating petrol/diesel vehicles) and utility vehicles in Ankleshwar providing the means of transport within most of the city. Intra-district and Inter-state buses also serve Ankleshwar frequently, to most of the nearby cities and states. In addition to this there are private bus operators ferrying passengers across Ankleshwar.
There are two CNG filling stations operated by Gujarat Gas Company in the city which cater to the above mentioned road transport vehicles. Recently, a new CNG station has been opened in GIDC located opposite the Smt. Jaya Ben Modi hospital and adjacent to the Shalimar hotel.
The main road which connects the highway to Valia is being widened, which will reduce the time taken for travelling. This road meets the widened road from Ghadkol-Patiya, Pragati-Path. The railway station has been given a face lift and now Platform No.2 also has an overhead shad
Demographics
As of 2001 India census, Ankleshwar had a population of 67,952. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Ankleshwar has an average literacy rate of 76%, higher than the national average of 59.5%; with 56% of the males and 44% of females literate. 13% of the population is under 6 years of age.
Shopping and Recreation
There are many parks (such as The Millennium Park and old parks in Ankleshwar city), the GIDC Water Reservoir, Sports center, Swimming pools, Joggers Park, Children Park, Rotary library and other recreation centres in the GIDC area. Small and big shops near the Chauta Bazar and Sardar Park area (in GIDC) are the central shopping zones. Prominent hotels in Ankleshwar include the Sadanand Hotel, Lords Plaza, The Shalimaar (3-4 star hotels) and other budget hotels like Sun Plaza, Royal Palace, Sha's Inn and so on.
