Rajkot

• 1. Introduction

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  Rajkot sits at the geographic heart of the Kathiawar peninsula in Gujarat, and its name carries a quiet ambition: "Raj" for royalty, "Kot" for fort. King's Fort. That name was given by a man named Vibhoji Ajoji Jadeja, who in 1612 carved out a principality on land his clan had received as a jagir, a royal land grant, from the state of Nawanagar. More than four centuries later, that same city ranks as India's 22nd fastest-growing urban area in the world. How does a fort town become a manufacturing hub, a cricket destination, and a place the world tracks for growth? The answers run through colonial administration, the independence movement, monsoon rivers, and a cricket stadium built fifteen kilometers outside the city. This is Rajkot.

• 2. A Fort and Its Founders

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  Vibhoji Ajoji Jadeja was a grandson of Jam Sataji of Nawanagar State, present-day Jamnagar, and a member of the Jadeja Rajput clan. When he received his jagir in 1612, he did not simply settle the land; he made the settlement a capital. Rajkot became the seat of his princely state, gradually attracting administration and culture to its centre. Under the British, the city took on a still wider role: it served as the headquarters of the Kathiawar Agency and then as the capital of the Western India States Agency. That sequence of administrative roles gave Rajkot an outsized institutional weight for a city of its size. The princely state acceded to the Indian Union in 1948, a year after independence, and Rajkot became the capital of the newly constituted Saurashtra State on the 15th of April 1948. That status held until the 31st of October 1956, when Saurashtra merged into the bilingual Bombay State. Rajkot was then reincorporated into Gujarat on the 1st of May 1960, the date Gujarat itself came into existence. The ruling lineage continued in civic life after the transition: Thakur Saheb Pradyumansinhji died in 1973, and his son Manoharsinhji Pradyumansinhji went on to serve in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly and as the state Minister for Health and Finance.

• 3. Gandhi and the City

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  Alfred High School in Rajkot is where Mahatma Gandhi received his education, and the city counts that connection as one of its defining features. The school building has since been converted into the Mahatma Gandhi Museum. Kaba Gandhi No Delo, the childhood residence of Mohandas Gandhi, stands as another site in the same cluster of landmarks near the Jubilee Garden at the city's centre. The garden itself is a large open park that preserves monuments from the colonial period, with the Connaught Hall placed prominently in its centre. Alongside the museum and the childhood home stand the Rashtriya Shala, the Watson Museum, the Rotary Dolls Museum, the Lang Library, and the Rotary Midtown Library. The Rotary Dolls Museum holds more than 1,400 dolls from around the world, maintained jointly by the Rotary Club of Rajkot Midtown and Rajkot Nagrik Sahakari Bank; the collection earned a place in the Limca Book of Records. The Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium also stands near this core of the city, binding sport to heritage in the same central zone.

• 4. Rivers, Rain, and Resilience

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  Rajkot sits at an average elevation of 128 metres on the banks of the Aji and Nyari rivers, though both rivers run dry for most of the year, carrying water only through the monsoon months of July to September. The city covers 170 square kilometres and receives an average of 670 mm of rain each monsoon season, but that average conceals extreme swings: in 1911 and again in 1939, rainfall dropped below 160 mm, while 1878 brought more than 1,300 mm and 1959 produced over 1,450 mm before the year was even complete. The hot semi-arid climate brings summer temperatures between 24 and 42 degrees Celsius, while winter months settle between 10 and 22 degrees. Cyclones originating in the Arabian Sea after the rainy season bring high-speed winds and heavy rainfall to the region, and thunderstorms are a regular feature of June and July. On the 26th of January 2001, the 7.7-magnitude Gujarat earthquake struck western India with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X, killing between 13,805 and 20,023 people and injuring around 166,800. The earthquake's destruction was concentrated in the Kutch region rather than in Rajkot itself.

• 5. Factories, Foundries, and Growth

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  About 500 foundry units operate within Rajkot, clustered across areas including Aji Vasahat, Gondal Road, Bhavanagar Road, Shapar, Veraval, and Metoda. The cluster grew primarily to serve the local diesel engine industry, and the majority of units produce grey iron castings for the domestic market, with roughly 2% exporting goods such as electric motor castings and automobile castings. Rajkot's manufactured goods range from jewellery and silk embroidery to watch parts, bearings, kitchen knives, automotive parts, machine tools, and CNC machinery. The Indian Oil Corporation Limited's Western Region Pipelines Headquarter is located near Gauridad village, and natural gas companies GSPL and GSPC also operate in the city. In 2006, the Rajkot Engineering Association announced plans to seek government approval for a Special Economic Zone. Real estate activity accelerated from early 2014 onward, with several high-rise buildings added to the skyline. The Rajkot Municipal Corporation reported total revenue receipts of 867 crore rupees and total expenditure of 1,009 crore rupees in 2022-23, with tax revenue accounting for about 31.6% of total receipts.

• 6. Cricket and the Stadium

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  Niranjan Shah Stadium, located in Khandheri about 15 kilometres outside Rajkot, holds 28,000 spectators and was formerly known as the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium. Its first international match was played on the 11th of January 2013, between India and England. The stadium has since hosted multiple international Tests, ODIs, and T20Is, and it served as the home base for the Gujarat Lions during the 2016-17 IPL seasons. Plans call for expanding the venue into a larger sports complex that will include facilities for badminton, basketball, and volleyball. Rajkot has produced cricketers who reached the national team, including Karsan Ghavri and Cheteshwar Pujara. Other grounds in the city include the Railway Cricket Ground and the Rajkumar College South Ground. Beyond cricket, sports such as hockey, football, tennis, chess, swimming, and squash are growing in the city, with major facilities including Kathiawar Gymkhana, Veer Savarkar Indoor Stadium, and Swami Vivekananda Indoor Stadium. The Gujarat Hockey Team's Under-14 squad was assembled with all 16 players drawn from Rajkot. The Rajkot Municipal Corporation also maintains a nine-hole golf course at Ishwaria, operated by Green Meadows Golf Club.

• 7. Smart City, Metro, and Airport

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  The Rajkot Smart City Plan covers approximately 930 acres and carries an estimated project cost of 2,100 crore rupees; it was designed by INI Design Studio. The plan scored 81 out of 81 points and received the highest Platinum rating from the Indian Green Building Council, making Rajkot the first green-rated Platinum-level Smart City in India. The Rajkot Municipal Corporation ranked third in the Indian Smart Cities Awards Content 2022 for its work rejuvenating Atal Sarovar. A metro system has been proposed: GMRC submitted a detailed project report for a 38-kilometre, two-line network with an estimated cost of 10,000 crore rupees. For air travel, Rajkot International Airport opened at Hirasar, about 36 kilometres from the city along National Highway 47, with all commercial operations shifted there on the 10th of September 2023. Airlines including IndiGo, Air India, and Ventura AirConnect serve daily flights to Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Goa, Hyderabad, Pune, and Surat. The city's Bus Rapid Transit System launched on the 1st of October 2012, running a 10.5-kilometre Blue corridor with 19 stations and a fleet of electric air-conditioned buses along the 150-foot Ring Road.