Silvassa is a city and the headquarters of the Dadra and Nagar Haveli district in Union territory of

Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu is a union territory in India. The territory was constituted through the merger of the former territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. Plans for the proposed merger were announced by th ...

in western India. It is today the largest city in the union territory. The city was chosen as one of the hundred Indian cities in

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

's flagship

Smart Cities Mission Smart Cities Mission was an urban renewal and retrofitting program by the Government of India with the mission to develop smart cities across the country, making them citizen-friendly and sustainable. The Union Ministry of Urban Development ...

Etymology

The former official name of the city, during Portuguese rule, was Paço de Arcos (Engl.: "palace of arches", also spelled Paço d'Arcos), named after the town of that same name located in Oeiras,

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

History

Until about the

turn of the century The turn of the century is the transition from one century to another, or the time period before or after that change in centuries. Usage The phrase "turn of the century" is generally understood to mean the change (whether upcoming or past) clo ...

, in the late 1800s, Silvassa was one of many small villages in

Portuguese India The State of India, also known as the Portuguese State of India or Portuguese India, was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded seven years after the discovery of the sea route to the Indian subcontinent by Vasco da Gama, a subject of the ...

. Its importance started to increase by the mid-1880s when the Portuguese administration, under then Governor-General Carlos Eugénio Correia da Silva, Count of Paço de Arcos, decided to transfer the seat of the Pragana Nagar Avely municipality further inland from Darará. On 11 February 1885, by decree from the Portuguese Ministry of the Overseas, Silvassa was designated as a town (''vila''), and given the name of Paço de Arcos. However, the endemic name prevailed, and the town continued to be known locally and beyond as Silvassa, being referred-to as such in official documents. The town remained the municipal capital until the Indian Annexation of 1954.

Demographics

According to the 2011 India

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, Silvassa had a population of 98,265.

Language

Gujarati and

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

are the most commonly spoken languages in Silvassa; as the city lies in the northern part of

Nagar Haveli Nagar Haveli () is one of the two talukas of Dadra and Nagar Haveli District, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, India. It is surrounded by the Indian states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Silvassa, the administrative headquarters of Da ...

, Gujarati and its dialects are more widely spoken compared to the southern part of Nagar Haveli, where

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

Konkani __NOTOC__ Konkani may refer to: Language * Konkani language is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Konkan region of India. * Konkani alphabets, different scripts used to write the language **Konkani in the Roman script, one of the scripts used to ...

and its dialects hold prominence. As with most larger towns and cities in India (with a somewhat centralised location), Silvassa is home to people from virtually every part of the nation, with numerous languages being spoken there besides the widespread Hindi, Marathi or Gujarati; one may hear Bengali,

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri may refer to: * Bhojpuri language, an Indo-Aryan language of India and Nepal * Bhojpuri grammar, grammatical rules of the language * Bhojpuri nouns, nouns of the language * Bhojpuri people, people who speak the language * Bhojpuri region ...

Haryanvi Haryanvi (हरियाणवी or हरयाणवी) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken primarily in the Indian state of Haryana and the territory of Delhi. Haryanvi is considered to be part of the dialect group of Western Hindi, which a ...

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

, Marwari, Odia, Punjabi,

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

, Telugu or

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

, amongst other tongues, when in Silvassa. As a former Portuguese colony, Silvassa has a significant

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

population, and there are still a few citizens who speak Portuguese as their first or second language.

Industry

Far from being a tribal region, Silvassa has now developed into an industrial hub with major industrial companies setting up manufacturing bases in the region. Its initial tax-free status granted by the Indian government to boost industrial investment in the former Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli has contributed to the region's industrial growth. The industrial landscape of Silvassa and surrounding region has been altered dramatically. It is one of the largest states in collection of excise duty from more than 3,500 small and medium industries. Silvassa is a big hub for plastic products and its products are found throughout India thanks to their good quality and low cost. Apart from all this, Silvassa is also known for various FMCG distributors like Gajra Distribution having reach throughout the country. Silvassa hosts more than 200,000 floating population, coming from all parts of the country; the laborers mostly hail from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha. Other floating community is from the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Rajasthan.

Transport and connections

Silvassa is connected to Maharashtra and Gujarat via National Highway 848A. Silvassa has a well-maintained road network. The nearest railway stations are in away and , away. Daman is 30 km away via Bhilad on National Highway number 8. Mumbai is 160 km away from Silvassa, via Bhilad, on National Highway number 8 Surat is 130 km away from Silvassa, via

Bhilad Valsad district (previously Bulsar district) is one of the 34 districts in the Western Indian state of Gujarat. It is bound by Navsari district to the north, Nashik district of Maharashtra state to the east, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli district o ...

, on National Highway number 8. Auto-rickshaw services ply between Vapi and Silvassa at a regular interval and easily available from Vapi (E) railway station. Gujarat Road Transport Buses ply between Silvassa and Vapi at a regular interval. Silvassa Smart City Limited currently operates 10 Electric Buses to and from the Silvassa Bus Stand, destinations include Daman, Vapi, Khanvel, Dudhani, and Mandoni.

References

{{Authority control Cities and towns in Dadra and Nagar Haveli