Thiruvananthapuram

Thiruvananthapuram or "Thiruvanathapuram" (formerly known as Trivandrum) is the capital (population - 889,191 (2001)) of the state of Kerala, India. The city is part of a district, also called Thiruvananthapuram, one of the 14 districts of Kerala. It is the largest city in Kerala, and under the Municipal Corporation. The city is distinct from other cities with its undulating terrain of low coastal hills near the southern edge of the Indian mainland.

Contents

1 History 2 Transport/Travel 3 People 4 Tourism 4.1 Hotels 5 Major Establishments, Places 5.1 Government Establishments 5.2 Science & technology 5.3 Educational institutions 5.4 Sports/stadiums 6 Thiruvananthapuram District 7 External links

History

Thiruvananthapuram is an ancient city with trading tradition dating back to 1000 BC. Thiruvananthapuram was the capital of the princely state of Travancore from 1745 to 1949. In 1949 it became the capital of Thiru-Kochi formed by the integration of Travancore with its northern neighbour Kochi. When the state of Kerala was formed on November 1, 1956, Thiruvanathapuram was chosen as the capital of the new state.

Thiruvananthapuram literally translates to the city of Ananthan, i.e. Thiru (Great/Lord) Ananthan's Puram (City). The name derives from the main deity of a Hindu temple at the centre of the city. Ananthan is the serpent Sesha on whom Padmanabhan or Vishnu reclines.

Transport/Travel

Thiruvananthapuram has an international airport, with direct flights from the Middle East, Singapore, Maldives and Sri Lanka. It is one of the busiest airports in the country in terms of international passenger and cargo volumes. It is therefore considered as the gateway to the tourism-rich state of Kerala.

The central railway station is located at Thampanoor in the heart of the city, 8 km from the airport.It is a very important terminus which handles over 50 trains daily. Because of it, the city is very well connected and has rail service to all major cities in India. Trivandrum is the first major city along the second longest train route in the world, Kanyakumari to Jammu. A second satellite station has recently opened at Kochuveli, near the International Airport.

There is also a long-distance bus station located next door to the railway station. Buses from it go to all major towns and villages in the state as well as big cities in India such as Kochi, Bangalore and Chennai. The city bus stand is located 1 km away at East Fort, near the Padmanabha Swamy Temple.

Within the city, city buses and autorickshaws provide means of transportation. A noticeable feature of the civilian city bus transportation is the lack of route descriptions in English, with almost all the route descriptions on the buses being only in Malayalam, the official language of Kerala. Two-wheelers, especially scooters and motorcycles are the favored means of personal transportation on the roads.

People

Population - 889,191 (2001)

Density - 1341 per sq. km

Literacy - 78.11%

Sex Ratio - 1037 females per 1000 males

Religion

Hindu : 61.6%

Christian : 19.6%

Islam : 15.1%

Others : 3.7%

Languages : Malayalam, English, Tamil with small minorities of Hindi and Tulu speakers.

Tourism

• Kovalam Beach is an Internationally acclaimed beach destination, attracting innumerable forign and domestic tourists every year. The Kovalam-Poovar region possesses more than 20 kilometres of beautiful beaches strung out in the form of coves.
• Somatheeram Beach near Kanjiramkulam 25 Km from City
• Neyyar Dam
• Varkala Beach
• Ponmudi (Hill station)
• Meenmutti (Kallar) Water Falls
• Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple
• Napier Zoo & Museum
• Sree Chitra Art Gallery
• Sanghumukham Beach
• Kanakakkunnu Palace
• Veli Lake
• Statue Junction is the heart of the city. The famous attraction here is the Secretariat.

Hotels

Thiruvananthapuram has a wide variety of hotels in all classes from Budget right upto Five Star Deluxe. They are distributed within the city as well as in and around tourist hot-spots like Kovalam and Varkala.

• Taj Green Cove, Kovalam (http://www.hotelskerala.com/tajhotels/greenvoveresortkovalam.htm)
• LeMeredien, Kovalam (http://hotels.kerala-tourism.org/hotel-kovalam-ashok-beach-resort-thiruvananthapuram.html)
• Taj Garden Retreat (http://www.hotelskerala.com/tajhotels/reservarkala.htm)
• Somatheeram Ayurvedic Beach Resort (http://www.somatheeram.com/)
• Travancore Heritage (http://www.thetravancoreheritage.com/)
• Uday Samudra (http://www.udaysamudra.com/)
• Poovar Island Resort (http://www.poovarislandresort.com/)
• Muthoot Plaza (http://www.sarovarparkplaza.com/Hotel/hotel_detail.asp?id=82&cityname=Thiruvanatapuram)
• Mascot Hotel (http://www.nivalink.com/mascot/)
• ITC South Park (http://www.fortuneparkhotels.com/home.asp?hd_id=24&link_id=0&headinfo=hotelresorts)
• Residency Towers
• Saj Luciya

Major Establishments, Places

Government Establishments

• Kerala state Legislative Assembly and Secretariat.
• All India Radio Station (AM 1161MHz & FM 101.9MHz)
• Doordarshan Kerala Central TV Station
• Chitranjali Film Complex
• Technopark (www.technopark.org) (http://www.technopark.org)- With over 1.5 million square feet (139,000 m²) of built up space, spread over 250 acres (1 km²), it is one of the largest IT parks in the country. Expansion projects to add another 2.5 million square feet (232,000 m²) are underway, resulting in a total of over 30,000 jobs by 2007-08. Major tenants include Infosys Technologies (http://www.infosys.com),TCS (http://www.tcs.com), US Technologies (http://www.ustri.com/),IBS (http://www.ibsplc.com/), Allianz (http://www.allianzcornhill.co.uk/), McKinsey (http://www.mckinsey.com/) and Tata Elxsi (http://www.tataelxsi.com/) in addition to a host of smaller companies.

• Kinfra Apparel Park (http://www.kinfra.com/pro1.htm)
• Kinfra Video Park (http://www.kinfra.com/pro4.htm)
• Center for Development of Information Technology (CDIT)
• Southern Air Command

Science & technology

Thiruvananthapuram is a Research and Development hub in the fields of Space science, Software, Bio-technology, Medicine and so on. It is home to a cluster of research centres to rival any in the world.

• Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) (http://www.isro.org/centers/cen_vssc.htm) - It is the largest and most important R&D complex of ISRO and is responsible for the design and development of most ISRO projects.
• Liquid Propulsions Systems Centre (LPSC).
• Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS).
• The Technopark- The World's Greenest Technology Park for IT (http://www.technopark.org)
• Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (http://www.erdcitvm.org)
• Regional Research Laboratory, CSIR
• Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (http://www.rgcb.res.in/)
• Regional Cancer Center (http://www.rcctvm.org/)
• Sri Chitra Thirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology (http://sctimst.ker.nic.in/)- is a leader in the country in terms of medical research and treatment, specializing in the cardiac and neural sciences.
• Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute
• Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS) (http://www.cessind.org/)
• Centre for Development Studies  (http://www.cds.edu/)
• Government Observatory
• Central Fisheries Research Centre
• Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (http://www.ctcri.org/)
• Science & Technology Museum
• Priyadarshini Planetarium - This state-of-the-art facility is equipped with the biggest Skydome in the country.

Educational institutions

Trivandrum is a major academic centre. The headquarters of Kerala University is located here. The city is a major centre for professional studies with 8 medical colleges and 15 engineering colleges.

• Non-professional colleges : 19
• Professional colleges :
  • Medical - 8
  • Engineering - 15
  • Law - 2
  • Agriculture - 1
  • Teacher's training - 3
  • Music - 1
• Schools - 949 (Trivandrum District)

Sports/stadiums

• Chandrashekhar Nair Stadium (Football) - Home ground of SBT
• Central Stadium
• University Stadium (Cricket, Track\Field) - 2 International Cricket matches
• Jimmy George Sports Complex
• GV Raja Sports School
• Kerala Flying Club
• Golf Links, Kawdiar
• Trivandrum Tennis Club, Kawdiar

Thiruvananthapuram District

The district has an area of 2192 sq. km, and a population of 3234707 (2001), the second largest in Kerala. It is divided into four talukas, viz. Thiruvananthapuram, Chirayinkil, Nedumangad and Neyyattinkara. The other urban bodies in the district are Attingal, Neyyattinkara, Varkala and Nedumangad municipalities.

External links

• Information on Thiruvanathapuram District from Department of Public Relations (http://prd.kerala.gov.in/prd2/keralam/dis_tvm.htm), Government of Kerala
• Official website of Thiruvananthapuram district (http://trivandrum.nic.in/)
• Govt. Model High School, Thiruvananthapuram (http://www.modelschool.org/)
• Govt. Arts College, Thirvananthapuram (http://www.keralauniversity.edu/GovArtsCollegeThiruvananthapuram.htm)
• Kerala University, Thiruvananthapuram (http://www.keralauniversity.edu/)
• College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram (http://www.cet.ac.in/)
• Loyola School, Thiruvananthapuram (http://www.loyolaschooltrivandrum.com/)
• Loyola Old Boys' Association (http://www.lobaglobal.com/)
• St. Xavier's College-Thumba (http://www.stxaviersthumba.com/)

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