Gujarat dairy city where Amul and India's cooperative milk revolution began in 1946.
Anand sits between Ahmedabad and Vadodara on the main railway line, about 65 km from Ahmedabad. It is known as the Milk Capital of India — this is where Dr Verghese Kurien established the cooperative dairy movement that became Amul and transformed India's dairy industry. The story begins in Anand in 1946, when farmers in the Kaira district organised against exploitative private contractors, and within a generation had built one of the world's most successful agricultural cooperatives.
The Amul Dairy plant at Anand offers guided tours for visitors — a rare chance to see industrial-scale dairy processing in action and to understand how the cooperative model actually works. The National Dairy Development Board is also headquartered here. Anand is primarily a business visit, but it is easily combined with Ahmedabad or Vadodara, both less than an hour away by train.
Guide
Getting There
By Rail: Anand is on the main Mumbai–Delhi railway line, one of India's busiest corridors. Trains from Ahmedabad take around an hour (65 km); trains from Vadodara take around 30–40 minutes (35 km). Many express trains stop here, making Anand easy to slot into a journey between the two cities rather than requiring a separate detour.
By Road: Anand is on NH 48, the national highway linking Ahmedabad to Vadodara and beyond to Mumbai. Bus services run frequently between Anand and both Ahmedabad and Vadodara. The road journey from Ahmedabad takes around 90 minutes by bus, less by private vehicle. Shared autorickshaws and local buses connect Anand with the adjacent town of Vallabh Vidyanagar (V.V. Nagar), which is effectively continuous with Anand and walkable once you are in the area.
