Katpadi

Katpadi கட்படி కట్పడి
Neighbourhood
Katpadi Location in Tamil Nadu, India
Coordinates: 12°59′N 79°08′E / 12.98°N 79.13°ECoordinates: 12°59′N 79°08′E / 12.98°N 79.13°E
Country	India
State	Tamil Nadu
District	Vellore District
Talukas	Katpadi
Government
• Body	Vellore Municipal Corporation
• Mayor	Mrs.P. Karthiyayini
Elevation	224 m (735 ft)
Languages
• Official	Tamil
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
PIN	632007
Telephone code	91 416
Vehicle registration	TN 23
Lok Sabha constituency	Arakkonam
Vidhan Sabha constituency	Katpadi
Civic agency	Vellore Municipal Corporation

Katpadi (pronounced [katːpaːdi]) is a locality in Vellore, at the northern part of Vellore city in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. Strategically located on the gauge line between Chennai-Bangalore and Villupuram-Tirupati, it is also where the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), one of India's premier educational institutions, is located.

Politics and geography

Once a village, Katpadi was upgraded to a panchayat town, with its own taluk office. It has a major assembly constituency which is part of Arakkonam (Lok Sabha constituency).^[1]

Katpadi lies in the northern side of the Palar River with the Andhra Pradesh state border just a five-minute drive from Katpadi Junction. When Vellore was upgraded to a corporation, Katpadi was also included in its city limits.

The original Katpadi village is now called Old Katpadi which lies on road which connects Thiruvalam and Chittor bus stop. The Government Boys Higher Secondary School located here is more than 100 years old.

A broad gauge railway line which connects Tamil Nadu to Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu (Chennai - Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram and Tirupathi - Mysore) passes through Katpadi. The railway station is location on Cuddalor - Chittor State Highway, SH 9 (now NH-234).

Katpadi Junction is the name of the primary railway station of Vellore city, providing connections to virtually every city and town in India.

Vellore Institute of Technology University (VIT)

The Vellore Institute of Technology University (popularly known as VIT) is in Katpadi. Ranked as the best private engineering university in India by the magazine India Today,^[2][3] VIT University has six schools of study and also houses the VIT Business School. VIT is also the first Indian university to be accredited by the prestigious Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) in London and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) in the US. The college has around 15,000 students from all over India and from over 20 countries.

Vellore-Katpadi Junction

Katpadi Junction, an important railway station of the Southern Railway Zone serving the city

Katpadi Junction is located in the city of Vellore and is the largest railway junction in the city and the district. One of the most important railway junctions in Southern Railway, it is one of the top ten revenue-yielding railway stations in Tamil Nadu. Bearing the station code KPD, it has four direction routes: northeast direction to Chennai, northwest to Andhra Pradesh and North India, southwest towards Coimbatore, Karnataka and Kerala, and south to Kanyakumari, Madurai.

It is also important because the Chennai-Bangalore and Chennai-Mysore Shatabdi Express stops at it, being the only junction the Shatabdi stops and excepting the Chennai-Kovai Duronto non-stop express, all the fast trains stops here. More than 150 trains cross through Vellore's Katpadi Junction daily. The number of commuters has increased tremendously mainly due to the Christian Medical College & Hospital (CMC), Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), the temple town of Tirupati and more recently the Golden temple at Sripuram, Vellore. Katpadi Junction handles more than 20,000 passengers a day.

Chittoor bus stand

Named for once being the starting point for all Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh buses, it is the third largest bus terminus in the city of Vellore. There is a statue of C. N. Annadurai there, and there are buses to Gudiyatham, Walaja, Arcot, Ranipet, Thiruvalam, and Muthukadai from here. There is a new building being built by the corporation for shops and a public shelter.

Bus route

The local Vellore city bus starts off from Katpadi Junction to Bagayam (via Central Bus Terminus, CMC and Town Bus Terminus).

Important statues, cinema

There are four statues of leaders in Katpadi, located in four major bus stops.

• C. N. Annadurai at the Chittoor bus stop
• M. G. Ramachandran at Odai Pillayar Koil
• K Kamaraj at Auxilium College Roundana
• Periyar E. V. Ramasamy at Kalyana Mandabam
• Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar at Kangeyanallore Road

The theaters in Katpadi are:

• AASCAR Cinemas (previously called Balaji Theatre)
• Vishnu Theater
• Galaxy Cinemas (previously called Apsa Theatre)

References

1. "List of Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies" (PDF). Tamil Nadu. Election Commission of India. Retrieved 2008-10-08.
2. VIT Ranking in India Today: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Photo/3308/3/best-engineering-colleges-in-india,-2010.html
3. "Vellore Institute of Technology". The Times Of India.

External links

• Katpadi traintiming