Ghaziabad is a railway junction and several lines pass through the city. The main railway station is situated in the middle of the city. Apart from Ghaziabad Junction Station (Station Code-GZB), city also has Sahibabad Railway Station (Station Code-SBB), Mahrauli Railway Station (Station Code-MFH), Adhyatmik Nagar Halt Railway Station (Station Code-AKNR), New Ghaziabad Railway Station (Station Code-GZN) and Guldhar Railway Station (Station Code-GUH). The city is well connected to Delhi and other neighbouring cities through Fast Moving Local Trains called EMU. Several trains connect Ghaziabad to Meerut, Aligarh, Delhi, New Delhi, Faridabad, Palwal, Mathura, Allahabad, Indore, Ujjain, Loni and others.
Ghaziabad is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is 19 km east of Delhi and 46 km southwest of Meerut. The city houses the headquarters of the Ghaziabad district. It is a large industrial city well-connected by roads and railways. Ghaziabad has been tagged the second fastest growing city in the world due to the construction boom it has been experiencing off-late, by a City Mayors Foundation survey. Situated in the Upper Gangetic Plains, the city has two major divisions separated by the Hindon River, namely: Trans-Hindon on the west and Cis-Hindon on the east side.
There are a number of private and government engineering, post-graduate, law colleges and management institutes in Ghaziabad. There are about 80-100 medical, dental, pharmacy colleges, and physiotherapy institutes. Some notable examples are Inderprastha Dental College, ABES Engineering College, Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, Ideal Institute of Technology, Ajay Kumar Garg Engineering College, Krishna Institute Of Engineering And Technology, Raj Kumar Goel Institute of Technology, and Lord Krishna College Of Engineering.
There are manufacturers of railway wagons at Modern Industry, Sahibabad, and Indian Railways has an Electric Locomotive & EMU Car Maintenance Shed in the city. The Shed is one of the largest and most modern. Other industries include the manufacture of diesel engines, electroplating, bicycles, picture tubes, tapestries, glassware, pottery, vegetable oil, paint and varnish, heavy chains, automobile pistons and rings, steel pharmaceuticals, and liquor.
The Delhi Metro extends to Dilshad Garden station which is situated at the Apsara Border on the outskirts of the city. At present it serves the areas of Shalimar Garden and other neighbouring colonies. This line will be further extended to Old Bus Stand, Ghaziabad by 2014. Another station exists at Vasihali, which serves that area as well as Vasundhara and Indirapuram, and there is also a station at Kaushambi.
The provisional data derived from the 2011 census shows that Ghaziabad urban agglomeration had a population of 2,358,525, of which males were 1,256,783 and females were 1,101,742. The literacy rate was 93.81 per cent. As of 2010, the major dominant communities included the Gurjars, Tyagis and Muslims. Ghaziabad is a subcategory B1 district of category B, i.e. having socio-economic parameters below the national average.
Ghaziabad is situated about 2.5 km from the Hindon river. On the north it is bound by the district of Meerut, on the south by that of Bulandshahar and Gautambudh Nagar, on the south-west by Delhi and on the east by the newly formed district of Hapur. As its boundary is adjacent to Delhi, it acts as the main entrance to Uttar Pradesh and hence is also called the Gateway of Uttar Pradesh.
There are bus terminals at Mohan Nagar, Lohia Nagar, Loni, Vasundhara and close to Meerut Road from where Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) buses serve cities all over the state. The Anand Vihar bus terminal of DTC is located on city’s border. There is a bus terminal for Private bus operators near ALT Center, Raj Nagar which is called ALT Bus Stand.
Ghaziabad can be reached by air, road and rail. The nearest airport is the Indira Gandhi International airport which is about 45 km away. By road, Ghaziabad is well-connected on all sides to Delhi, NOIDA, Hapur, Modinagar, Bulandshahr, Meerut, Saharanpur, Haridwar, etc. A large number of people commute to Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida and Gurgaon every day for work.
As it is connected to National capital Delhi, its temperature and rainfall are similar to Delhi. Rajasthan’s dust storms and snowfall in the Himalayas, Kumaon and Garhwal hills name their impact in the weather regularly. The monsoon arrives in the district during the end of the June or the first week of July and normally it rains until October.
Hindon, a tributary of the Yamuna River, originating in the Upper Shivaliks is the main river flowing through the city. The Upper Ganges Canal flows through the northern part of the city, catering to the irrigation and drinking water needs of people of Ghaziabad and Delhi. The total municipal area of the city is 210 km2.
Due to its strategic location, it has been under tight security in recent times. Rajnath Singh, National Party President of the Bharatiya Janata Party, is the Member of Parliament from the city. He was first elected to that post in 2009.
Ghaziabad was given the status of a municipal corporation (nagar nigam) on 31 August 1994. Administravitely the city is divided into five areas: the City zone, the Kavi Nagar zone, the Vijay Nagar zone, the Mohan Nagar zone and the Vasundhara zone.
Ghaziabad is a part of the satellite area of Delhi therefore most of the newspapers, TV channels and radio channels are the same as for Delhi. Television channels are available through the cable TV network, City Cable being the largest operator.
Zilla Ghaziabad, a movie set to release in 2013, is set in the city, and portrays the organised crime and gang wars of the 1980s and early 1990s, which dominated the social backdrop of the city during that period.
Ghaziabad is the city that gives highest revenue in the state of Uttar Pradesh and second maximum in India. Indirapuram and Crossings Republik are the two big sub cities of Ghaziabad.
As in other districts of northern India mainly three seasons- summer, winter and rainy prevail here but sometimes due to severe snowfall in the Himalayas and Kumaon Hills adverse weather can also seen.