Palghar

Palghar
पालघर
City
Palghar
Coordinates: 19°41′N 72°46′E / 19.69°N 72.76°E / 19.69; 72.76Coordinates: 19°41′N 72°46′E / 19.69°N 72.76°E / 19.69; 72.76
Country India India
State Maharashtra
District Palghar
Government
 • Type Municipal Council
 • Body Palghar Municipal Council (PMC)
 • Member of Parliament Mr. Chintamani Wanga
 • MLA Amit Krushna Ghoda, (Shiv Sena) [1]
Elevation 7 m (23 ft)
Population (2013)
 • Total 550,166 (for Taluka)
Languages
 • Official Marathi
Time zone IST (UTC+5:30)
PIN 401404
Telephone code 02525
Vehicle registration MH-48, MH-04

Palghar pronunciation (Marathi: पालघर) is a town and a Municipal Council located about 87 kilometres north off Mumbai. Palghar lies on the Western Line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway on the busy Mumbai-Ahmedabad rail corridor. It is the administrative capital of the newly formed Palghar district. The town is located around 35 kilometers north of Virar and about 20 kilometres west of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad National Highway (NH 8) exit at Manor, India. Palghar, which was until 31 July 2014 known as a distant suburb of Mumbai has been accorded the status of a district headquarters following the formation of the Palghar district on 1 August 2014. It is Maharashtra's 36th district. Palghar remains a popular weekend getaway town for Mumbaikars. It is also an emerging town with high growth prospects located within the periphery of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

Located nearly 40 kilomteres away from Virar, Palghar acts as an important residential, industrial and educational hub for villages surrounding the town. Various age groups of people travel from the surrounding villages for different job opportunities, education, business, shopping and health care facilities. Many villages are connected to Palghar via road & rail. The government provides State Transport Bus facility to access these villages. Various villages surrounding Palghar include Tarapur, Umroli, Kelva, Satpati, Shirgaon, Saphale and Sartodi.

Employment

The main occupation of the people of Palghar is employment in factories and farming. The land surrounding Palghar abounds in human resources - skilled and unskilled. Apart from the government promoted MIDC situated at Tarapur, Palghar is also home to a number of Industrial Townships where there are many small scale industries such as engineering, pharmaceutical, plastics, textile, notebook industries. Maharashtra's biggest fishing center, Satpati, is located around 8 kilometres from Palghar railway station. There are farms growing chickoos, coconuts, palm dotted all around villages around Palghar. Rice is grown on agricultural lands during the monsoon. A large part of the population commutes to Mumbai daily to make a living. Palghar along with Dahanu accounts 50% of nations Chickoo's produce. Government of Maharashtra has established Coconut research center and Farm in Palghar.

Demographics

As of 2011 India census,[2] Palghar had a population of 68,930 Males constitute 36,523 i.e. 52.9% of the population and females 32,407 i.e. 47.1% of the population. Palghar has an average literacy rate of 77.52%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 81.2%, and female literacy is 73.35%. In Palghar, 11.8% of the population is under 6 years of age.

For a town its size, Palghar is surprisingly cosmopolitan. Being a border town between Gujarat and Maharashtra and being close to Mumbai, it has a good percentage of population of people from other parts of country besides Maharashtra and Gujarat like Rajasthan, Kerala and North India. Most of the rich landlords of Palghar made their money trading grass to the dairies in Mumbai. Grass trading is a major occupation of many families in Palghar. The town is also close to an industrial complex, located at Boisar and India's first nuclear power plant, located at Tarapur.

Industrialization is gradually changing the face of Palghar. The town is getting a make-over of sorts due to Industrialization. Palghar's youth is getting employment in the small scale and medium scale industries coming up in and around the area. In the olden days agriculture was one of the main source of livelihood, but industrialization has opened up new avenues for them. With space & infrastructure constraints in Mumbai proper, Vasai, Boisar - Palghar proves to be the leading avenue in Western suburbs for setting up new industry / expansion purposes. Permissions are available fast.

Transportation

Palghar is well connected via road and rail transport. Palghar acts as a divisional head of MSRTC Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation. MSRTC provides direct connectivity to several towns across Maharashtra including Miraj, Pune, Vaduj, Thane, Bhiwandi, Aurangabad, Ahmednagar,Kalyan,Alibag,Nandurbar,Bhusaval, Shirdi, Nashik etc. from Palghar.

Palghar is an important railway station on the Western Railway line of Mumbai Suburban Railway. Along with Shuttle/Memu/EMU(Local trains) services, many long distance trains also stop here.

Residential

Palghar is spread across a number of villages which has a number of residential colonies, housing complexes, independent housing units and cooperative housing societies. With real estate prices soaring in the area, satellite towns like Manor, India and Devkhop are being considered as affordable residential locations for the working population in the region.

Education

The Town has a number of Schools and Colleges. In the past few years, a number of construction projects have sprouted in the region. There is tremendous scope to set up new schools & colleges for increasing staying population.

Schools

Marathi schools

English schools

Hindi schools

Gujarati schools

Colleges

Tourist Attractions

The famous Kelva Beach is just 13 km. by road. People from Mumbai & suburbs arrive on Sunday to enjoy the beach. Adjacent to the beach is the a temple dedicated to the Goddess Shitla Devi. One can reach the beach also by railway by alighting at Kelve Road Station just before Palghar. During the monsoons, the eastern hills of Palghar is home to several waterfalls. The hills are a favorite weekend hangout for locals and tourists from Mumbai. The little known Mahim beach is located just 7 kilometers from Palghar. It is a pristine stretch of beach located adjacent to the Kelve beach, separated only by a shallow estuary. Five kilometers from the town is another tourist attraction known as the Devkhop lake. The Shirgaon Fort is also accessible from Palghar. It is in fairly good condition and is next to a beach. The Manor Dam, located in Manor, India offers a picturesque panoramic view for day-trippers from Mumbai.

Miscellaneous

Palghar has many hospitals. Some are specialised for women's care while others treat all types of patients. There are sonography centres along with X-ray facility. The government primary health centre also caters to all patients free of charge. There are ambulance services for taking the patients to referral hospitals. Kanta Hospital blood storage centre provides blood to other hospitals in emergency and whenever required for delivery or surgery. There is a medical association of the doctors in and around Palghar which holds CME programmes to keep abreast with new developments in medicine. For complex treatment/surgery, there is no medical infrastructure in the region. There is tremendous scope to set up new hospitals in the region.

Sports

Cricket is the most popular sport in Palghar. Various local tournaments are organized at various locations across the district. Shardul Thakur is a cricketer from Palghar(Mahim) who plays for Kings XI Punjab and for Mumbai in Ranji Trophy.

Hospitals

Major industries

Palghar has a number of prominent industries such as Welspun, Macleods,Dales Remedies, Fredun Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Durian,Prime notebook, Sundaram Notebook, Jayant Printery, Ginza Industries Ltd, R&S Electronics, Ebco, EU-Medicaments, Raghuvanshi Exports, Abby Lighting, Astamed Healthcare (I) Pvt. Ltd., Fashion Forecast (India), Rapid Valves, Kamal Containers, Thakkar & Sons, Nirali Sinks, Vinod Cookware, Macro Bars And Wires (India), Austenitic Steels, Hindustan Laboratories etc. Along with industries, Palghar has a number of industrial townships, prominent ones being Genesis Industrial Township and Dewan & Sons. There are also several small scale industries running successfully for long time produced employment to local people and incurred revenue to the government.

Newspapers

Environment Industry and Human ( English Monthly magazine )

Palghar nav mitra (Marathi paper weekly)

References

  1. ↑ "Shiv Sena Retains Palghar Assembly Seat".
  2. ↑ "Census of India 2001: Data from the 2001 Census, including cities, villages and towns (Provisional)". Census Commission of India. Archived from the original on 2004-06-16. Retrieved 2008-11-01.

(District-Palghar,State-Maharashtra)

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