Visit to Gandhinagar, Capital City of Gujarat State in India

If you ask any Indian which is the capital city of the Gujarat State, most of them would reply it as Ahmedabad. Even most of the Gujarati people will also think of Ahmedabad. However, the correct answer is Gandhinagar. Though, Gandhinagar have started gaining popularity in the recent past and has become one of the most attractive cities of the Gujarat State. It was established as the capital of Gujarat State before around 21 years. Its construction work was started as early as in 1964 and is still going on. It has a total area of around 650 square kilometers. It is situated at around 15 miles away from Ahmedabad in the Northern side. There are regular and very frequent buses along with other transport facilities, available for reaching the city of Gandhinagar. It has been named as Gandhinagar in the name of father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

Gandhinagar is situated on the bank of River Sabarmati. There are around thirty sectors in the city. Each sector has been named on the alphabets of Gujarati language. There are many sites seeing places also available here at Gandhinagar. The first of all is the secretariat. There are two secretariats, one is the old and the second is new. The architectural design of the new secretariat is really very impressive. The assembly of the Gujarat State meets here in the assembly hall, which is located near this new secretariat. If the assembly session is in progress, one can see it from the visitor's gallery upstairs. However, you need to obtain special permission and the entry tickets for this. There is a very beautiful garden, known as Sarita garden, which is at the bank of River Sabarmati. This is a very large garden and there is a facility of boating inside the River Sabarmati during the rainy season when there is ample water in the river. There is a protected forest for the deer's, where the deers can be seen freely moving in the protected forest area. There is a very large picnic resort in the middle of the city. Around 1500 people can enjoy a grand picnic here at this resort. There are two very nice restaurants serving authentic Gujarati food here at this resort. There is also a children's park here. Many entertaining rides are kept here for the children of all the ages. There is a governor's house where the present governor of the Gujarat State stays. Though, it is not permitted to see this governor's house from inside.

There are a couple of lovely outings near Gandhinagar. The first is the temple situated in the village Rupal, which was built by the king of Gujarat, Sidharaj Jaisinh. There is a beautiful statue of Vardayee Matajee in this temple. This statue of Mataji was brought from the famous town of Palli by the king himself. Most of the people living in this area have a strong faith in this temple. The other outing is the famous Jain temples of Mahudi. These temples are of Mahavir Ghantakarna, the god of Jains. Mahudi is around 25 miles away from the city of Gandhinagar and can be certainly visited as a one day outing during the weekends. The famous Swaminarayana temple at Akshardham is also worth visiting, which is around 20 miles away from Gandhinagar. Gandhinagar is slowly developing as a tourist center. I had an opportunity to stay in this beautiful city for around one week during my last visit to India in the year 2007. The weather of this city remains very cool, even during the peak summer.

Gandhinagar is very well connected by air from Mumbai, Delhi, and Jaipur. It is also a big railway station on the Western Railway. One can reach Gandhinagar by road, as it is located on the national highway number 8. Many of us may not have visited this beautiful capital city of Gandhinagar of the Gujarat State. My suggestion would be to create the opportunity to visit it during your next visit to India.