Vapi is a city and municipality in Valsad District in the state of Gujarat. It is situated near the banks of the Damanganga River. It can be called the most industrialised city in Gujarat followed by Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot. It has a total population of 1,63,630.
The highest employment in the district is in Mineral based, Chemical, Wood based, Rubber, Plastic and Metal based industries. The district has 45% of the workforce employed in the Agricultural Sector, 53% in the Industrial Sector and the remaining 2% are Household workers.
As regards its name Valsad Town does not find any reference before A.D. 1300. The opinion of some of the learned persons residing here is that the original name of this place was Nyagrodhpur. In Sanskrit, Nyagrodh means Vad (Fag tree). Somebody might have thought about Nyagrodhpur, keeping in mind the work Val-Vad occurring in Valsad. There might have been a cluster of fig trees here and so the name Valsad or by corrupt form Valsad may have been accepted. The name of the district has been kept as Valsad District from the name of the Valsad Town thus accepted.
Valsad district is located on the Southern part of Gujarat near Gulf of Cambay in the Arabian Sea. There are five tehsils in the district namely Valsad, Pardi, Umargam, Dharampur and Kaprada. Valsad town is district head quarter for the administration purpose. Vapi located in Pardi tehsil is the core chemical based industries hub in the district. Valsad is famous for its Valsadi mangoes. Focused industry sectors in the district are Chemicals, Textiles, Horticulture and Paper Industries.
Abrama (CT) and Mogar Wadi (CT) has included in Valsad Municipality under Urban Development and Urban Housing Department Notification of February 2006. The Chala (M) and Dungra (M) merged in Vapi Municipality under Urban Development and Urban Housing Department Notification of February 2006.
