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About Visakhapatnam
Visakhapatnam population 19 lakhs pronunciation is a Port city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is located on the eastern shore of India nestled among the Eastern Ghats Hill Ranges and facing the Bay of Bengal on the East. City is about 650 KM on North-East from Hyderabad. Alternatively, it sometimes goes by its British colonial name but mostly defunct name - Waltair. During the colonial era, the city had at its hub the Waltair railway station, and that part of the city still goes by the name of Waltair. The City is home to several state owned heavy industries, has one of the country's largest ports, and its oldest shipyard. It has the only natural harbour on the eastern coast of India. Andhra University, a prominent seat of education in Andhra |
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| Pradesh, is located here. vizag is primarily an industrial city, apart from being a Tourist Destination. It draws tourists to its unspoilt beaches, nearby scenic Araku Valley and Borra caves, the 11th century Simhachalam temple, and ancient Buddhist sites spread across the area. The city boasts a submarine museum, the first of its kind in South East Asia, at Rama Krishna Beach. Visakhapatnam is also the headquarters of the Eastern Naval Command of the Indian Navy. |
HistoryThis region, formerly part of the great Kalinga empire that stretched up to the river Godavari, has also been mentioned in Hindu and Buddhist texts from the 5th and 6th centuries BCE, as well as by Sanskrit grammarians, Panini and Katyayana in the 4th century BCE.
This city was ruled by several dynasties: the Kalingas during the 7th century, the Chalukyas during the 8th century, the Cholas, the Qutb Shahis of Golconda, the Mughal Empire, and the Nizams of Hyderabad.
Scenic beauty of vizag beachLocal legend says that an Andhra king (9-11th century) on his way to Benares rested there. So enchanted was he with the sheer beauty of the place that he ordered a temple to be built in honor of his family deity Visakha. Archaeological sources, however, reveal that the temple was possibly built between the 11th and 12th centuries by the Chola king, Kulottunga. |
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A shipping merchant, Sankarayya Chetty, built one of the mandapams, or pillared halls of the temple. Though it no longer exists (It may have been washed away about 100 years ago by a cyclonic storm) elderly residents of vizag talk of visits to the ancient shrine by their grandparents. Noted litterateur Ganapatiraju Atchutarama Raju contradicted this.
In the 18th century, Visakhapatnam was part of the Northern Circars, a region of Coastal Andhra that came first under French control, and was later by the British. Visakhapatnam became a district in the Madras Presidency of British India. After India's independence this was the biggest district in the country and was subsequently divided into the three districts of Srikakulam, Vijayanagaram and Visakhapatnam. |
The City/TownFrom being a tiny little fishing village in the ninteenth century, vizag has grown into an industrial hub. In the seventies and the eighties the city grew rapidly with a lot of investments in the state owned Hindustan Shipyard Limited, vizag Steel, and other major industries. Economic liberalization in the ninties did bring a modest growth to the city but not as much as it did to the state capital Hyderabad. The urban sprawl that characterizes other major cities is yet to be seen here.
It has a small airport( which shuts down quite frequently when there is heavy rain due to flooding) and has daily flights from Hyderabad and Mumbai. With the entry of two new budget airlines: Air Sahara and Air Deccan operating there along with the State-owned Indian Airlines, there's a modest increase in frequency of the flights. vizag Airport has recently received permission to operate night flights, |
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and is in the process of constructing a new 10000-foot long runway to accommodate international flights and larger aircraft.
There has been a rise in the real estate prices, mainly attributed to the Telangana movement for a separate Telangana state with some speculating on vizag becoming the next capital. |
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