Day 9: Travelling from the Doon Valley to Kanpur or Karnapur (Town of Karna, one of the heroes of Mahabharata)

All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything. 

Swami Vivekananda 

Travelling for 12 hours from Dehradun to Kanpur was an excellent drive owing to, in large parts to the Yamuna Expressway.

Leaving Dehradun early in the morning, we passed by several cities of industrial and cultural significance. The first among these cities was Saharanpur, named after the Sufi Saint Shah Haroon Chishti.

Saharanpur is a flourishing business city and an important regional center for wholesale and retail trades, particularly in grain, timber, textiles, food and beverages. Saharanpur's key industrial clusters are:

Food - Grains, vegetables, fruits (Especially the renowned mangoes and fruit pulp), milk and milk products. 

Agro based industries - The most important are sugar, gur, (cotton) textiles and cigarettes (ITC's cigarettes manufacturing factory is located here.) 

Industrial goods - Paper (One of India's leading paper mills, Star Paper is located here), sugarcane, hosiery material, wood carving, shoes and bells of wrought iron.

The second major city that we passed by was Muzaffarnagar located in the middle of highly fertile upper Ganga-Yamuna region and is quite near to the National capital, making it one of the most developed and prosperous cities of Uttar Pradesh. Muzaffarnagar district was included in NCR (National Capital Region) on 9^th June 2015 opening new avenues of development for the city. This city is also part of Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and Amritsar Delhi Kolkata Industrial Corridor (ADKIC) thereby opening doors of opportunities in the region.

Muzaffarnagar lies in what is called the Sugar Belt of Western Uttar Pradesh. The region is one of the important sugarcane producing regions in the world. Sugar and jaggery production are vital industries with a quite a few leading private market players in the Muzaffarnagar district. Some large and several mid-sized steel and paper units also form a key part of Muzaffarnagar’s economy.

The third major city that we passed by was the ancient city of Meerut with settlements dating back to the Indus Valley civilization. It is also the largest city in the National Capital region. Meerut is home to a few prominent regional pharmaceutical companies such as Mankind Pharma, Perk Pharmaceuticals Limited and Bestochem. Meerut is the largest manufacturer of musical instruments in India and one of the major sports goods manufacturing regions in India. The city is especially famous for the manufacture of cricket goods with SG (Sanspareils Greenlands) being the largest Indian cricket goods manufacturer and exporter operating in Meerut.

Meerut is a hub of gold design in India, with the city's gold market being one of Asia’s largest, employing over 25,000 skilled craftsmen and processing around 60 kilograms of the gold per day. Meerut is also home to the battle gear and armoury industry, pegged to be around Rs. 25 crore (US$ 3.7 million) per annum, which produces gear for use in Hollywood films (Gladiator, 300) and television series (Spartacus: Blood and Sand).

The fourth major city in our road journey from Dehradun to Kanpur was Ghaziabad the ‘Gateway of UP’. Ghaziabad is the second largest industrial city in Uttar Pradesh after Kanpur. Major industrial players of Ghaziabad include Bhushan Steel, Magnam Paper Ltd. (Particle boards, machine glazed paper, writing paper and  duplex boards), Modi Industries (Sugar mills), Coca Cola’s bottling plant etc.

From there onwards after passing by Greater Noida, we travelled on the 165 kms long Yamuna Expressway, India's longest six-lane controlled-access expressway stretch built at a project cost of Rs. 128.39 billion (US$ 1.9 billion). CCTV cameras have been installed every 5 kms along this expressway for safety and accident assistance; mobile radars have been placed to monitor compliance with minimum and maximum speed limits; and one highway patrol is found every 30 kms. This expressway is used by over 1,00,000 vehicles every day, and reduces travel times between Greater Noida and Agra from 4 hours to 1.6 hours.

The last major city that we passed by before entering Kanpur was Firozabad also known as the City of Bangles. During ancient times, invaders brought many glass articles to India. These glass articles when rejected were collected and melted in locally made furnaces and were originally used only for making smaller bottles and bangles. Over time, production slowly became more widespread among the locals. This was the start of the glass industry in Firozabad. Since then Firozabad has been the home of India's glass industry.

One of the glass bangle factories of Firozabad 

Firozabad with changing times has entered into a new era of glass manufacturing by evolving into a major manufacturing hub for different glass based items thereby registering its global presence, diversifying its industrial base and encouraging ancillary industries including chemicals, packaging and a few service sector based industries which have flourished in a short span of time.

All in all a rewarding journey led us to Kanpur, our destination, while filled with vivid memories of the cities which we had passed by.

Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true. 

Swami Vivekananda