Bharuch district lies where the Narmada river runs into the Gulf of Khambhat. The city of Bharuch stands on the river's bank, and the Golden Bridge, built in 1881, still joins it to Ankleshwar across the water. Newer bridges carry the highway traffic. Surat is the neighbour to the south, Narmada to the east, Vadodara to the north-east and north, and Anand lies across the gulf and the Mahi side. The district has the Mumbai-Delhi rail line, National Highway 48, and a rail branch from Ankleshwar toward Rajpipla. All of it funnels freight through the river crossing at Bharuch, which is why queues and halts there are so familiar to every transporter.
The industrial map is easy to read. Ankleshwar has a large industrial estate known for chemicals, dyes and pharmaceuticals, and Panoli and Jhagadia carry more plants of the same kind. Dahej, in Vagra taluka on the gulf, has a deep-water cargo port, a gas import terminal and a special economic zone with chemical and engineering units. The trucks, tank trailers, drum carriers and skid-mounted equipment of these areas spend as much time at gates and weighbridges as on the road. A battery tracker on a skid or a trailer tells the owner whether an item is in the plant, in the yard or already on the highway.
Away from the plants, the district is still a farm district. Jambusar, Amod and Vagra have cotton fields and ginning units, and banana, sugarcane and vegetables are grown along the Narmada. Netrang and Valia, toward the eastern edge, bring in produce from hill villages. The pilgrim side matters too, with Shuklatirth and Kabirvad on the river island drawing visitors, and Narmada Parikrama pilgrims passing through. So a BT900 here has many jobs. It rides on a drum trailer at Dahej, on a cotton trolley at Jambusar, on a rented pump at a plant shutdown or in a rental generator on a festival ground.
