Akola is a city and the administrative headquarters of Akola district in the Vidarbha region of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Located in the central part of the state, it serves as a major commercial, agricultural and educational hub for western Vidarbha, and is particularly known as a trading centre for cotton, pulses and oilseeds.
| Country | India |
|---|---|
| State | Maharashtra |
| Region | Vidarbha |
| District | Akola |
| Division | Amravati |
| Civic body | Akola Municipal Corporation |
| Languages | Marathi (official), Hindi, Urdu |
| Time zone | IST (UTC+5:30) |
Akola lies on the Deccan Plateau, on the banks of the Morna river, a tributary of the Purna. It forms part of the Purna river basin, with fertile black cotton soil that supports intensive agriculture across the surrounding plain. The city experiences a hot semi-arid climate, with very hot summers, a monsoon season from June to September, and mild winters.
The region around Akola has been part of successive Deccan polities, including the Vakatakas, the Yadavas of Devagiri, the Bahmani Sultanate, the Nizam Shahi and Mughal empires, and later the Nizam of Hyderabad. Following the Treaty of 1853, Akola passed under British administration as part of the Berar Province, and from 1903 it was administered jointly with the Central Provinces as the Central Provinces and Berar.
Akola district was constituted under British rule and the city developed as a railway and trading centre after the Great Indian Peninsula Railway line through Berar was opened in the 1860s. After Indian independence in 1947, the area became part of Madhya Pradesh, and was transferred to Bombay State in 1956 under the States Reorganisation Act. With the bifurcation of Bombay State in 1960, Akola became part of the new state of Maharashtra. In 1998, Washim district was carved out of the erstwhile larger Akola district.
Municipal governance is handled by the Akola Municipal Corporation. The city is the headquarters of Akola district and falls within the Amravati administrative division. Akola is represented in the Lok Sabha by the Akola constituency, and contains assembly constituencies including Akola West, Akola East, and Akot in the surrounding district.
The economy of Akola is closely tied to agriculture and agro-processing. The city is one of the largest markets in Maharashtra for cotton, tur (pigeon pea) and other pulses, soybean, and oilseeds. Cotton ginning and pressing, dal mills, oil mills, and textile-related units form the core of local industry. The Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) yard at Akola is among the busier mandis in Vidarbha.
Akola Junction is a major station on the Howrah–Mumbai (via Nagpur) trunk route of Central Railway, and historically also a junction for the metre-gauge Akola–Khandwa and Akola–Purna lines, which have been progressively converted to broad gauge. National Highway 53 (the Surat–Kolkata corridor) and National Highway 161 pass through the city, connecting it with Nagpur, Aurangabad, Amravati and Khandwa. Akola Airport, located at Shivani, has historically handled limited operations and has been considered for expansion under regional connectivity schemes.
Akola has a mixed cultural fabric with Marathi, Hindi and Urdu speakers, and observes major festivals including Ganesh Chaturthi, Diwali, Eid and Muharram. The city and surrounding district are associated with the social reformer and educationist Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh, founder of the Shri Shivaji Education Society, after whom the agricultural university is named. The 13th-century Marathi saint-poet Sant Gadge Baba was born in nearby Shendgaon in the broader Vidarbha region and is widely venerated locally.