Tiruchirappalli () (
formerly Trichinopoly in English), also called Tiruchi or Trichy, is a major
tier II city
The ''classification of Indian cities'' is a ranking system used by the Government of India to allocate House Rent Allowance (HRA) to public servants employed in cities in India. HRA is also used by the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) to provide inc ...
in the
Indian state of
Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of
Tiruchirappalli district. The city is credited with being the best livable city
and the cleanest city of Tamil Nadu, as well as the fifth safest city for women in India. It is the fourth largest city as well as the fourth largest
urban agglomeration in the state. Located south of
Chennai
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Tamil Nadu, the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and territories of India, Indian state. The largest city ...
and north of
Kanyakumari, Tiruchirappalli sits almost at the geographic centre of Tamil Nadu state. The
Cauvery Delta
Chola Nadu is a cultural region of the Tamil Nadu state in southern India. It encompasses the lower reaches of the Kaveri River and its delta, and formed the cultural homeland and political base of the Chola Dynasty which ruled large parts of S ...
begins west of the city where the
Kaveri river splits into two, forming the island of
Srirangam which is now incorporated into the
Tiruchirappalli City Municipal Corporation
The Tiruchirappalli City Municipal Corporation is the municipal corporation which looks after the city administration of Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, India. It consists of a legislative and an executive body. The legislative body is headed b ...
. The city occupies an area of and had a population of 916,857 in 2011.
Tiruchirappalli's recorded history begins in the 3rd century BC, when it was under the rule of the
Cholas
The Chola dynasty was a Tamil thalassocratic empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated to the 3rd century BCE d ...
. The city has also been ruled by the
Pallavas,
Pandyas,
Vijayanagar Empire
The Vijayanagara Empire, also called the Karnata Kingdom, was a Hindu empire based in the region of South India, which consisted the modern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and some parts of Telangana and Maharash ...
,
Nayak Dynasty
Nayaka dynasties emerged during the Kakatiya dynasty and the Vijayanagara Empire period. The Nayakas were originally military governors under the Vijayanagara Empire. After the battle of Talikota, several of them declared themselves independent.
...
, the
Carnatic state and the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
. The most prominent historical monuments in Tiruchirappalli include the
Rockfort at
Teppakulam
Teppakulam is a locality near the centre of the Indian city of Tiruchirappalli. It consists of a large artificial tank surrounded by bazaars, prominent among which is a flower market. It contains the Thayumanavar Temple and the Sri Naganathar ...
, the
Ranganathaswamy temple at Srirangam dedicated to the reclining form of Hindu God Vishnu, and is also the largest functioning temple in the world, and the
Jambukeswarar temple at Thiruvanaikaval, which is also the largest temple for the Hindu God Shiva in the world. The archaeologically important town of
Uraiyur, capital of the
Early Cholas, is now a neighbourhood in Tiruchirappalli. The city played a critical role in the
Carnatic Wars
The Carnatic Wars were a series of military conflicts in the middle of the 18th century in India's coastal Carnatic region, a dependency of Hyderabad State, India. Three Carnatic Wars were fought between 1744 and 1763.
The conflicts involved n ...
(1746–1763) between the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
and the
French East India companies.
The city is an important educational centre in the state of Tamil Nadu, and houses nationally recognised institutions such as
National Institutes of Technology
The National Institutes of Technology (NITs) are the central government-owned-public technical institutes under the ownership of Ministry of Education, Government of India. They are governed by the National Institutes of Technology, Scienc ...
(NIT),
Indian Institutes of Management (IIM)
National Law Universities
(NLU), and
Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIIT) Srirangam. Industrial units such as
Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL),
Golden Rock Railway Workshop
The Golden Rock Railway Workshop (officially the Central Workshop, Golden Rock, abbreviated GOC), in Ponmalai (Golden Rock), Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, is one of three railway workshops serving Indian Railways' Southern Railway zone. Th ...
,
Ordnance Factory Tiruchirappalli
Ordnance Factory Tiruchirappalli (OFT), also called Ordnance Factory Trichy, is a small arms factory operated by Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited based in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, which was previously part of Ordnance Factory Bo ...
(OFT) and
High Energy Projectile Factory (HEPF) have their factories in the city. The presence of a large number of energy equipment manufacturing units in and around the city has earned it the title of "Energy Equipment and Fabrication Capital of India". Tiruchirappalli is internationally known for a brand of ''
cheroot
The cheroot is a filterless cylindrical cigar with both ends clipped during manufacture. Since cheroots do not taper, they are inexpensive to roll mechanically, and their low cost makes them popular.
The word 'cheroot' probably comes via Portugu ...
'' known as the
Trichinopoly cigar, which was exported in large quantities to the United Kingdom during the 19th century.
A major road and railway hub in the state, the city is served by the
Tiruchirappalli International Airport
Tiruchirappalli International Airport (IATA: TRZ, ICAO: VOTR) is an international airport serving Tiruchirappalli in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The airport spread over an area of is located on National Highway 336, about south of the ci ...
(TRZ) which operates flights to the
Middle East and
Southeast Asia.
Etymology
Historically, Tiruchirappalli was commonly referred to in English as "Trichinopoly". The shortened forms "Trichy" or "Tiruchi" are used in everyday speech and the full name Tiruchirapalli appears in official use by government and quasi-government offices but seldom used by the general public.
According to the late scholar
C. P. Brown, Tiruchirappalli might be a derivative of the word ''Chiruta-palli'' (lit. "little town").
Orientalists Henry Yule
Sir Henry Yule (1 May 1820 – 30 December 1889) was a Scottish Orientalist and geographer. He published many travel books, including translations of the work of Marco Polo and ''Mirabilia'' by the 14th-century Dominican Friar Jordanus. ...
and
Arthur Coke Burnell
Arthur Coke Burnell (11 July 184012 October 1882) was an English civil servant who served in the Madras Presidency who was also a scholar in Sanskrit and Dravidian languages. He catalogued the Sanskrit manuscripts in southern India, particularly ...
have speculated that the name may derive from a rock inscription carved in the 16th century in which Tiruchirappalli is written as ''Tiru-ssila-palli'', meaning "holy-rock-town" in
Tamil. Other scholars have suggested that the name Tiruchirappalli is a rewording of ''Tiru-chinna-palli'', meaning "holy little town". The ''Madras Glossary'' gives the root as ''Tiruććināppalli'' or the "holy (''tiru'') village (''palli'') of the ''shina'' (''
Cissampelos pareira'') plant".
According to
Hindu mythology, Tiruchirappalli derives its name from the three-headed demon ''Trishira'', who
meditated on the Hindu god
Shiva near the present-day city to obtain favours from the god. An alternative derivation, albeit not universally accepted, is that the source of the city's name is the
Sanskrit word "Trishirapuram"—''
Trishira
Trishira (Sanskrit: त्रिशिर, IAST: triśira, lit. ''he who has three heads'') was a Rakshasa (a demon), and reference to him is found in the Ramayana. He was one of the sons of Ravana and Dhanyamalini and his brothers are Atikaya, ...
'', meaning "three-headed", and ''palli'' or ''puram'' meaning "city".
History
Early and medieval history
Tiruchirappalli is one of the oldest inhabited cities in
Tamil Nadu; its earliest settlements date back to the Sangam period.
Uraiyur, the capital of the Early Cholas for 600 years from the 3rd century BC onwards, is a neighbourhood in the present-day Tiruchirappalli. The city is referred to as Orthoura by the historian
Ptolemy in his 2nd-century work ''
Geography''. The world's oldest surviving dam, the
Kallanai
Kallanai (also known as the Grand Anicut) is an ancient dam. It is built (in running water) across the Kaveri river flowing from Tiruchirapalli District to Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, India. The dam located in Thanjavur
district. Locate ...
(Lower Anaicut) about from Uraiyur, was built across the Kaveri River by
Karikala Chola in the 2nd century AD.
Tiruchirappalli Rock Fort, the rock is said to be one of the oldest formations in the world. It is 3.8 billion years old, as it is older than
Greenland and
Himalayas.
The medieval history of Tiruchirappalli begins with the reign of the Pallava king
Mahendravarman I
Mahendravarman I (600–630 CE) was a Pallava emperor who ruled the Southern portion of present-day Andhra region and Northern regions of what forms present-day Tamil Nadu in India in the early 7th century. He was a scholar, painter, architect ...
, who ruled over South India in the 6th century AD and constructed the rock-cut cave-temples within the
Rockfort. Following the downfall of the Pallavas in the 8th century, the city was conquered by the
Medieval Cholas, who ruled until the 13th century.
After the decline of the Cholas, Tiruchirappalli was conquered by the
Pandyas, who ruled from 1216 until their defeat in 1311 by
Malik Kafur
Malik Kafur (died 1316), also known as Taj al-Din Izz al-Dawla, was a prominent slave-general of the Delhi Sultanate ruler Alauddin Khalji. He was captured by Alauddin's general Nusrat Khan during the 1299 invasion of Gujarat, and rose to promi ...
, the commander of
Allauddin Khilji
Alaud-Dīn Khaljī, also called Alauddin Khilji or Alauddin Ghilji (), born Ali Gurshasp, was an emperor of the Khalji dynasty that ruled the Delhi Sultanate in the Indian subcontinent. Alauddin instituted a number of significant administrative ...
. The victorious armies of the
Delhi Sultanate are believed to have plundered and ravaged the region. The statue of the Hindu god
Ranganatha in the temple of
Srirangam vanished at about this time and was not recovered and reinstated for more than fifty years. Tiruchirappalli was ruled by the Delhi and
Madurai sultanates from 1311 to 1378, but by the middle of the 14th century the Madurai Sultanate had begun to fall apart. Gradually, the Vijayanagar Empire established supremacy over the northern parts of the kingdom, and Tiruchirappalli was taken by the Vijayanagar prince
Kumara Kampanna Udaiyar in 1371. The Vijayanagar Empire ruled the region from 1378 until the 1530s, and played a prominent role in reviving Hinduism by reconstructing temples and monuments destroyed by the previous Muslim rulers. Following the collapse of the Vijayanagar Empire in the early part of the 16th century, the
Madurai Nayak kingdom began to assert its independence. The city flourished during the reign of
Vishwanatha Nayak
Viswanatha Nayak was the Vijayanagara viceroy to Madurai in south India during the 16th century. He later became the ruler of Madurai after the fall of the Vijayanagara empire. He is the founder of the Nayak dynasty of Madurai.Saints, Goddess ...
(c. 1529–1564), who is said to have protected the area by constructing the
Teppakulam
Teppakulam is a locality near the centre of the Indian city of Tiruchirappalli. It consists of a large artificial tank surrounded by bazaars, prominent among which is a flower market. It contains the Thayumanavar Temple and the Sri Naganathar ...
and building walls around the Srirangam temple. His successor
Kumara Krishnappa Nayaka made Tiruchirappalli his capital, and it served as the capital of the Madurai Nayak kingdom from 1616 to 1634 and from 1665 to 1736.
In 1736 the last Madurai Nayak ruler,
Meenakshi
Meenakshi (Sanskrit: ; Tamil: ; sometimes spelled as Minakshi; also known as , and ), is a Hindu goddess and tutelary deity of Madurai who is considered an avatar of the Goddess Parvati also referred to as Durga. She is the divine consort of ...
, committed suicide, and Tiruchirappalli was conquered by
Chanda Sahib
Chanda Sahib (died 12 June 1752) was a subject of the Mughal Empire and the Nawab of the Carnatic between 1749 and 1752. Initially he was supported by the French during the Carnatic Wars. After his defeat at Arcot in 1751, he was captured by ...
. He ruled the kingdom from 1736 to 1741, when he was captured and imprisoned by the
Marathas
The Marathi people (Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a ...
in the
siege of Tiruchirappalli (1741) led by general
Raghuji Bhonsle
Raghoji Bhonsle or Raghoji I Bhonsale or Raghuji the Great (1695 – February 1755) of the Bhonsale dynasty, was a Maratha general who took control of the Nagpur Kingdom in east-central India during the reign of Shahu I. His successors ruled ...
under the orders of
Chhattrapati Shahu
Chhatrapati Shahu Bhosale I (Pronunciation: �aːɦuː CE) was the fifth Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire founded by his grandfather, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Born into the Bhonsle family, he was the son of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj ...
. Chanda Sahib remained prisoner for about eight years before making his escape from the Maratha Empire. Tiruchirappalli was administered by the Maratha general
Murari Rao
Murari Rao Ghorpade (1699-1779), known simply as Murari Rao, was an army general in the Maratha Army from Gooty who administered the fort of Tiruchirappalli and surrounding areas from 1741 to 1743. His administration marks the only period of Marat ...
from 1741 to 1743, when
it was acquired by the
Nizam of Hyderabad
The Nizams were the rulers of Hyderabad from the 18th through the 20th century. Nizam of Hyderabad (Niẓām ul-Mulk, also known as Asaf Jah) was the title of the monarch of the Hyderabad State ( divided between the state of Telangana, Mar ...
, who bribed Rao to hand over the city. Nizam appointed Khwaja Abdullah as the ruler and returned to
Golkonda. When the
Nawab of the Carnatic Muhammed Ali Khan Wallajah was dethroned by Chanda Sahib after the
Battle of Ambur
The Battle of Ambur (3 August 1749) was the first major battle of the Second Carnatic War.
The battle was initiated by Muzaffar Jung and supported by Joseph François Dupleix and led by Chanda Sahib, who sought to overthrow Anwaruddin Muhammed ...
(1749), the former fled to Tiruchirappalli, where he set up his base. The subsequent
siege of Tiruchirappalli (1751–1752) by Chanda Sahib took place during the
Second Carnatic War between the
British East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
and Muhammed Ali Khan Wallajah on one side and Chanda Sahib and the
French East India Company on the other. The British were victorious and Wallajah was restored to the throne. During his reign he proposed renaming the city Natharnagar after the Sufi saint
Nathar Vali
Sultan Syed Shah Mutaharuddin Suhrawardi (969–1039), also called Dada Hayat Mir Qalandar or Nathar Wali or Nadir Shah, was a Muslim mystic and preacher from the Middle East who migrated to Tamil Nadu in the 11th-century, where he travelled fr ...
, who is thought to have lived there in the 12th century AD. Tiruchirappalli was invaded by
Nanjaraja Wodeyar
Nanjaraja Wodeyar (Nanjaraja Wodeyar Bahadur; 1748 – 2 August 1770) was the nineteenth maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore for only four years, from 1766 to 1770, as puppet under '' sarvadhikari'' Hyder Ali, like his father was.
Life
He was eld ...
in 1753 and
Hyder Ali of the
Mysore kingdom in 1780, both attacks repulsed by the troops of the British East India Company. A third invasion attempt, by
Tipu Sultan—son of Hyder Ali—in 1793, was also unsuccessful; he was pursued by British forces led by
William Medows
General Sir William Medows KB (31 December 1738 – 14 November 1813) was an Englishman and a general in the British Army. He entered the army in 1756 and saw action in North America, the Cape, and India. In 1788 he was appointed Governor of Bom ...
, who thwarted the attack.
British rule
The Carnatic kingdom was
annexed by the British in July 1801 as a consequence of the discovery of collusion between Tipu Sultan—an enemy of the British—and
Umdat Ul-Umra, son of Wallajah and the
Nawab at the time, during the
Fourth Anglo-Mysore War. Trichinopoly was incorporated into the
Madras Presidency
The Madras Presidency, or the Presidency of Fort St. George, also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including the ...
the same year, and the district of
Trichinopoly
Tiruchirappalli () ( formerly Trichinopoly in English), also called Tiruchi or Trichy, is a major tier II city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Tiruchirappalli district. The city is credited with bein ...
was formed, with the city of Trichinopoly (or Tiruchirappalli) as its capital.
During the
Company Raj
Company rule in India (sometimes, Company ''Raj'', from hi, rāj, lit=rule) refers to the rule of the British East India Company on the Indian subcontinent. This is variously taken to have commenced in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey, when ...
and later the
British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
, Tiruchirappalli emerged as one of the most important cities in India. According to the
1871 Indian census—the first in British India—Tiruchirappalli had a population of 76,530, making it the second largest city in the presidency after the capital of Madras (now Chennai). It was known throughout the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
for its unique variety of ''cheroot'', known as the
Trichinopoly cigar. Tiruchirappalli was the first headquarters for the newly formed
South Indian Railway Company
The South Indian Railway Company operated a number of gauge lines in South India from 1874 to 1951.
History
The Great Southern of India Railway Company was established with its headquarters in England in 1853. The Carnatic Railway Company wa ...
in 1874 until its relocation to
Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
in the early 20th century.
File:Town and Fort of Trichinopoly p.302.jpg, alt=The town and fort of Trichinopoly photographed in 1840, The town and fort of Trichinopoly c. 1840
File:The tank and Rockfort Trichinopoly.jpg, alt=The Teppakulam and Rockfort photographed in 1860, Rockfort and Teppakulam, c. 1860
Contemporary and modern history
Tiruchirappalli played an active role during the
pre-independence era; there were a number of strikes and non-violent protests during the
Quit India Movement
The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Kranti Movement, was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 8th August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British rule i ...
, notably the
South Indian Railway Strike that took place in 1928. The city was the base for the
Vedaranyam salt march initiated by
C. Rajagopalachari
Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (10 December 1878 – 25 December 1972), popularly known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji (Rajaji'', the Scholar Emeritus''), was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and independence activis ...
in parallel with the
Dandi March
The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mahatma Gandhi. The twenty-four day march lasted from 12 March to 6 April 1930 as a d ...
in 1930. Tiruchirappalli was an epicentre of the
anti-Hindi agitations of Tamil Nadu when a team of Tamil language supporters gathered and organised a rally from the city to Madras in
1938
Events
January
* January 1
** The Constitution of Estonia#Third Constitution (de facto 1938–1940, de jure 1938–1992), new constitution of Estonia enters into force, which many consider to be the ending of the Era of Silence and the a ...
. Later in 1965, Tiruchirappalli was made the base of the "Madras state Anti-Hindi Conference" convened by C. Rajagopalachari. The population of Tiruchirappalli continued to grow rapidly, achieving a growth rate of 36.9% during the period 1941–51. After independence in 1947, Tiruchirappalli fell behind other cities such as
Salem and
Coimbatore
Coimbatore, also spelt as Koyamputhur (), sometimes shortened as Kovai (), is one of the major metropolitan cities in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Noyyal River and surrounded by the Western Ghats. Coimbato ...
in terms of growth.
Tiruchirappalli remained a part of
Madras State, which was renamed Tamil Nadu in 1969. The city underwent extensive economic development in the 1960s with the commissioning of
Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited.
In the early 1980s,
M. G. Ramachandran
Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 24 December 1987), also popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist, and filmmaker who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death in 1987 ...
, then
Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
The chief minister of Tamil Nadu is the chief executive of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. In accordance with the Constitution of India, the governor is a state's ''de jure'' head, but ''de facto'' executive authority rests with t ...
drafted a plan to move the state's administrative headquarters to Tiruchirappalli.
A
satellite town was developed near
Navalpattu on the outskirts of the city,
but the proposed move was shelved by successive governments.
Like much of Tamil Nadu, Tiruchirappalli remains prone to communal tensions based on religion and ethnicity. There have been occasional outbreaks of
violence against Sri Lankans. In 2009, the offices of a Sri Lankan airline were attacked in the city. In September 2012, two groups of Sri Lankan pilgrims who had visited the
Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health
The Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health, also known as Sanctuary of Our Lady of Velankanni, is a Marian shrine located at the town of Velankanni in Tamil Nadu, India. The place is also a minor basilica of the Latin Catholic Church dedicated to O ...
in
Velankanni
Velankanni (''Vēḷāṅkaṇṇi''), is a Special Grade Panchayat Town in Nagapattinam district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It lies on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal, 350 km south of Chennai (Madras), 12 km south of ...
and the
Poondi Madha Basilica had their buses attacked in Tiruchirappalli by a group of Tamil activists. Owing to a series of terrorist attacks in Indian cities since 2000, security has been increased at sites such as
Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple.
Geography and climate
Tiruchirappalli is situated in central south-eastern India, almost at the geographic centre of the state of Tamil Nadu. The
Cauvery Delta
Chola Nadu is a cultural region of the Tamil Nadu state in southern India. It encompasses the lower reaches of the Kaveri River and its delta, and formed the cultural homeland and political base of the Chola Dynasty which ruled large parts of S ...
begins to form west of the city where the river divides into two streams—the
Kaveri
The Kaveri (also known as Cauvery, the anglicized name) is one of the major Indian rivers flowing through the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The Kaveri river rises at Talakaveri in the Brahmagiri range in the Western Ghats, Kodagu dis ...
and the
Kollidam
The Kollidam (referred to as Coleroon in Colonial English) is a river in southeastern India. The Kollidam is the northern distributary of the Kaveri River as it flows through the delta of Thanjavur. It splits from the main branch of the Kaveri ...
—to form the
island of Srirangam. By road it is south of
Hyderabad
Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. ...
, south-west of Chennai and south-east of
Bangalore
Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
. The topology of Tiruchirappalli is almost flat with an average elevation of . A few isolated hillocks rise above the surface,
the highest of which is the Rockfort; its estimated age of 3,800 million years makes it one of the oldest rocks in the world.
Other prominent hillocks include the
Golden Rock,
Khajamalai,
and one each at
Uyyakondan Thirumalai and
Thiruverumbur
Thiruverumbur (also spelt as Tiruverambur) is a neighbourhood in the city of Tiruchirapalli (Trichy or Tiruchi) in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It was merged with the Tiruchirappalli Corporation in 2011.
Demographics
India census, Thiruver ...
.
Apart from
Kaveri
The Kaveri (also known as Cauvery, the anglicized name) is one of the major Indian rivers flowing through the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The Kaveri river rises at Talakaveri in the Brahmagiri range in the Western Ghats, Kodagu dis ...
and its tributary
Kollidam
The Kollidam (referred to as Coleroon in Colonial English) is a river in southeastern India. The Kollidam is the northern distributary of the Kaveri River as it flows through the delta of Thanjavur. It splits from the main branch of the Kaveri ...
, the city is also drained by the Uyyakondan Channel, Koraiyar and
Kudamurutti river
Kudamurutti River a tributary of the Kaveri, is one of the five sacred rivers flows in Thiruvaiyaru in the Thanjavur District of the state of Tamil Nadu, in southeastern India. Kudamurutti River joins the Cauvery River at Tiruchirapalli. Ancient na ...
channels. The land immediately surrounding the Kaveri River—which crosses Tiruchirappalli from west to east—consists of deposits of fertile alluvial soil on which crops such as
finger millet
''Eleusine coracana'', or finger millet, also known as ragi in India, kodo in Nepal, is an annual herbaceous plant widely grown as a cereal crop in the arid and semiarid areas in Africa and Asia. It is a tetraploid and self-pollinating species ...
and
maize are cultivated. Further south, the surface is covered by poor-quality
black soil. A belt of
Cretaceous rock known as the
Trichinopoly Group
The Trichinopoly Group is a geological formation in India whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous. It lies between the Ootatoor and Ariyalur Groups. It is broad in its southern extremity but thins as it gradually proceeds northwards as it ...
runs to the north-east of the city, and to the south-east there are layers of
archaean rocks,
granite and
gneiss covered by a thin bed of
conglomeratic laterite
Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...
. The region falls under
Seismic Zone III, which is moderately vulnerable to earthquakes.
Urban structure
The city of Tiruchirappalli lies on the plains between the
Shevaroy Hills The Selvarayan hills, with the anglicised name Shevaroy Hills, are a towering mountain range (1620 m) near the city of Salem, in Tamil Nadu state, southern India. It is one of the major hill stations in Tamil Nadu and in the Eastern Ghats.
The loc ...
to the north and the
Palani Hills
The Palani Hills are a mountain range in the southern Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Palani Hills are an eastward extension of the Western Ghats ranges, which run parallel to the west coast of India. The Palani Hills adjoin the hi ...
to the south and south-west. Tiruchirappalli is completely surrounded by agricultural fields. Densely populated industrial and residential areas have recently been built in the northern part of the city, and the southern edge also has residential areas. The older part of Tiruchirappalli, within the Rockfort, is unplanned and congested while the adjoining newer sections are better executed. Many of the old houses in Srirangam were constructed according to the
shilpa sastras, the canonical texts of Hindu temple architecture.
Climate
Tiruchirappalli experiences a dry-summer
tropical savanna climate (
Köppen climate classification: ''As''), with no major change in temperature between summer and winter.
The climate is generally characterised by high temperature and low humidity. With an annual mean temperature of and monthly average temperatures ranging between and ,
the city is the hottest in the state.
The warmest months are from April to June, when the city experiences frequent dust storms. , the highest temperature ever recorded in Tiruchirappalli was , which occurred on 2 May 1896; the lowest was observed on 6 February 1884 at .
The high temperatures in the city have been attributed to the presence of two rivers—Kaveri and Kollidam—and the absence of greenery around the city.
As Tiruchirappalli is on the
Deccan Plateau the days are extremely warm and dry; evenings are cooler because of cold winds that blow from the south-east.
From June to September, the city experiences a moderate climate tempered by heavy rain and thundershowers. Rainfall is heaviest between October and December because of the north-east
monsoon winds, and from December to February the climate is cool and moist.
The average annual rainfall is , slightly lower than the state's average of . Fog and dew are rare and occur only during the winter season.
Demographics
According to the
2011 Indian census
The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...
, Tiruchirappalli had a population of 847,387, 9.4% of whom were under the age of six, living in 214,529 families within the municipal corporation limits. The recorded population density was while the
sex ratio was 975 males for every 1,000 females.
The Tiruchirappalli urban agglomeration had a population of 1,022,518, and was ranked the fourth largest in Tamil Nadu and the 53rd in India as of 2011.
The city had an average literacy rate of 91.37%,
significantly higher than the national average of 73.00%.
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes accounted for 10.48% and 0.27% of the population respectively.
There were 228,518 people, roughly constituting about 26.96% of the total population, who lived in slums in the city. The daily
floating population of the city was estimated at around 250,000.
The city's population is predominantly
Hindu.
Muslims constitute about twenty percent, and there is also a considerable Christian population.
Sikhs and
Jains are present in smaller numbers.
Roman Catholics in Tiruchirappalli are affiliated to the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Tiruchirapalli
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Tiruchirapalli/Trichy ( la, Tiruchirapolitan(us)) is a diocese located in the city of Tiruchirapalli in the Ecclesiastical province of Madurai in India.
History
* 1606: Established as Mission “sui iuris” of Ma ...
while
Protestants are affiliated to the
Trichy–Tanjore Diocese of the
Church of South India
The Church of South India (CSI) is a united Protestant Church in India. It is the result of union of a number of mainline Protestant denominations in South India after independence.
The Church of South India is the successor of a number of P ...
.
The most widely spoken language is
Tamil, but there are significant numbers of
Telugu
Telugu may refer to:
* Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India
*Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India
* Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language
** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode
...
,
Gujarati
Gujarati may refer to:
* something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India
* Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat
* Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them
* Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...
,
Kannada,
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
and
Hindi speakers.
Saurashtra is also spoken by some significant minorities. The standard dialect of Tamil spoken is the
Central Tamil dialect
The Central Tamil dialect is a dialect of Tamil spoken in the districts of Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Karur and Tiruchirapalli in central Tamil Nadu, India and to some extent, in the neighbouring Cuddalore and Pudukkottai districts. Alo ...
.
There is also a substantial population of
Anglo-Indian
Anglo-Indian people fall into two different groups: those with mixed Indian and British ancestry, and people of British descent born or residing in India. The latter sense is now mainly historical, but confusions can arise. The '' Oxford Englis ...
s, and
Sri Lankan Tamil migrants, most of whom are housed in refugee camps on the outskirts of the city.
Administration and politics
Covering , the municipality of Tiruchirappalli was inaugurated under the Town Improvements Act 1865 on 1 November 1866; it originally consisted of two ex-officers and nine nominated members. Council elections were introduced in 1877 and the first chairman was elected in 1889. The municipality was upgraded to a
municipal corporation as per the Tiruchirappalli City Municipal Corporation Act 1994 by inclusion of the erstwhile Srirangam and Golden Rock municipalities. Covering ,
the municipal corporation comprises 65 wards and four administrative zones; these are Srirangam,
Ariyamangalam
Ariyamangalam ( ta, ௮ரியமங்கலம்) is one of the four zones of the Tiruchirappalli Municipal Corporation. One of SIDCO's two Tiruchirappalli-based industrial estate
An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, tra ...
, Golden Rock and
Abhishekapuram
Abhishekapuram ( ta, அபிஷேகபுரம்) is a suburb of the city of Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, India. It constitutes one of the four zones of the Tiruchirappalli Municipal Corporation
The Tiruchirappalli City Municipal C ...
.
Tiruchirappalli City Municipal Corporation Council, the legislative body, comprises 65 councillors elected from each of the 65 wards and is headed by a mayor assisted by a
Deputy Mayor.
The executive wing has seven departments—general administration, revenue, town planning, engineering, public health, information technology and personnel—and is headed by a City Commissioner. The Commissioner is assisted by two executive engineers for the east and west sections, and Assistant Commissioners for personnel, accounts and revenue departments, a public relations officer, a city engineer, a city health officer and an Assistant Commissioner for each of the four zones.
A Local Planning Authority for Tiruchirappalli was created on 5 April 1974 as per the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act of 1971 with the District Collector of Tiruchirappalli as chairman and the assistant director of Town and Country Planning as its member secretary.
The city of Tiruchirappalli is represented in the
Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly by Nine elected members, one each for the
Tiruchirappalli East,
Tiruchirappalli West,
Srirangam,
Thiruverumbur
Thiruverumbur (also spelt as Tiruverambur) is a neighbourhood in the city of Tiruchirapalli (Trichy or Tiruchi) in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It was merged with the Tiruchirappalli Corporation in 2011.
Demographics
India census, Thiruver ...
, Musiri, Lalgudi, Manapparai, Thuraiyur and Manachanallur constituencies.
J.Jayalalithaa, former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, represented the Srirangam constituency between 2011 and 2015. Tiruchirappalli is also part of the
Tiruchirappalli Lok Sabha constituency
Tiruchirappalli is a Lok Sabha (Parliament of India) constituency in Tamil Nadu. Its Tamil Nadu Parliamentary Constituency number is 24 of 39.
Assembly segments
The Tiruchirappalli Lok Sabha constituency is composed of the following assembly se ...
and once every five years, elects a member to the
Lok Sabhathe lower house of the
Parliament of India.
The Lok Sabha seat has been held by the
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British ...
for four terms (1957–62,
1984–89,
1989–91
and 1991–96
), the
Communist Party of India
Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925.
H ...
(1962–67,
1971–77
and 1977–80
) and the
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK) is an Indian regional political party with great influence in the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is a Dravidian party founded by the former chief min ...
(2001–04, 2009–14 and 2014–present) for three terms each
) and
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...
(1998–99
and 1999–2001
) for two terms each. Candidates from the
Communist Party of India
Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925.
H ...
,
Tamil Maanila Congress
The Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar) (; TMC(M)) is an Indian regional political party in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is founded by the former Member of Parliament of the Republic of India G. K. Moopanar on 29 March 1996 as a breakaway fac ...
and the
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam have won once each. Indian politician
Rangarajan Kumaramangalam
Phanindranath Rangarajan Kumaramangalam (12 May 1952 – 23 August 2000) was a prominent politician of the Indian National Congress and later the Bharatiya Janata Party and a Member of parliament, Lok Sabha from the Salem constituency from 1 ...
, who served as the Minister of Power in the government of
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee (; 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served three terms as the 10th prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months fr ...
,
was elected to the Lok Sabha from Tiruchirappalli in the 1998 and 1999 elections.
Law and order are enforced by the Tamil Nadu police, which for administrative purposes, has constituted Tiruchirappalli city as a separate district, divided into 18 zonal offices and units, with a total of 38 police stations.
[ Click on the "Commissioner Office" tab to get the name and contact details of police commissioner of Tiruchirappalli city district.]
The Tiruchirappalli city police force is headed by a
Commissioner of police assisted by Deputy Commissioners. Law and order in suburban areas is enforced by the Tiruchirappalli district police.
It has the lowest proportion of rape and murder cases in the state.
Utility services
Electricity supply to the city is regulated and distributed by the
Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB).
Tiruchirappalli is the headquarters of the Trichy region of TNEB. The city and its suburbs form the Trichy Metro Electricity Distribution Circle, which is subdivided into six divisions.
A chief distribution engineer is stationed at the regional headquarters at
Tennur.
Water supply is provided by the
Tiruchirappalli City Corporation.
The city gets its drinking water supply from the Kaveri River and 1,470 bore wells linked to 60 service reservoirs in and around the city.
Four of the six head works from which the city gets its water supply are maintained by the municipal corporation and the rest by other agencies.
Pollution has been a major concern in Tiruchirappalli. The
Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board has set up five stations in the city to check the quality of air.
As of 2012, about of solid waste are produced in the city every day. Solid waste management in the city is handled by the corporation; places such as the Gandhi Market, Central Bus terminus and the Chathram bus terminus are being monitored by other agencies. The principal landfill is at Ariyamangalam.
Waste water management in the Trichy-Srirangam underground drainage (UGD) areas is handled by the
Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board
Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD Board) is a public agency formed by the Government of Tamil Nadu, under the Ministry of Local Administration and Water Supply, assigned with the task of implementing all water supply and sewerag ...
(TWAD) and in other areas by the Tiruchirappalli Municipal Corporation. As of 2013, there were a total of 40,580 UGD connections maintained by the municipal corporation. In 2020, it is estimated that 31% of the city is covered under a networked sewage system, however, as of September 2020 the corporation has fast-tracked its project to cover the entire city, funded jointly by urban local body, Tamil Nadu Urban Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (Tufidco) and Asian Development Bank. The high toxicity of the waste water released by the Trichy Distilleries and Chemicals Limited (TDCL) is a major cause of concern for the corporation. The corporation's annual expenditure for the year 2010–11 was estimated to be .
In 2013, researchers from Bharathidasan University assessed water quality in the Tiruchirappalli area and concluded that although the quality of the groundwater was suitable for human consumption, the quality of the pond water in the city was "not fit for human usage, agricultural or industrial purposes".
Under the National Urban Sanitation Policy, Tiruchirappalli was ranked sixth in India and first in Tamil Nadu on the basis of sanitation for the year 2009–10.
In January 2010, Tiruchirappalli became the first city in India where open defecation was prevented in all its slums.
In a 2016 survey conducted by the
Ministry of Urban Development
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is a ministry of the Government of India with executive authority over the formulation and administration of the rules and regulations and laws relating to the housing and urban development in Ind ...
, as a part of the
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan campaign, Tiruchirappalli was ranked third in the
list of cleanest cities in India.
Under the ease of living index 2018 published by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Tiruchirappalli was ranked twelfth in India and first in Tamil Nadu among the 111 cities considered.
The ranking framework was categorised into four pillars, namely Institutional, Social, Economic and Physical, which comprised 78 indicators such as urban transport, waste water management, solid waste management and governance.
Tiruchirappalli comes under the Tiruchi Telecom District of the
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited
Bharat, or Bharath, may refer to:
* Bharat (term), the name for India in various Indian languages
** Bharata Khanda, the Sanskrit name for the Indian subcontinent (or South Asia)
* Bharata, the name of several legendary figures or groups:
** Bhar ...
(BSNL), India's state-owned telecom and internet services provider.
There are about 20,000 business telephone subscribers in the city.
Both Global System for Mobile Communications (
GSM
The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such as ...
) and
Code division multiple access (CDMA) mobile services are available.
BSNL also provides broadband internet services.
BSNL began offering wireless internet services with the commencement of
Evolution-Data Optimized
Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO, EVDO, etc.) is a telecommunications standard for the wireless transmission of data through radio signals, typically for broadband Internet access. EV-DO is an evolution of the CDMA2000 (IS-2000) standard which su ...
(EVDO) transmission in 2008.
Tiruchirappalli is one of the few cities in India where BSNL's Caller Line Identification (CLI)-based internet service Netone is available.
Softnet (STPI),
Tata VSNL,
Bharti and
Reliance are other major broadband internet service providers in the city.
Tiruchirappalli has a regional passport office, the second in Tamil Nadu, which commenced its operations on 23 March 1983 bifurcated from Chennai region. After Coimbatore and Madurai regional office were established in late 2000s by bifurcating from Trichy region, currently the office caters to the needs of Trichy and seven adjacent districts namely,
Karur, Nagappattinam, Perambalur, Pudukkottai, Thanjavur, Ariyalur and Tiruvarur.
Economy
During British rule, Tiruchirappalli was known for its tanneries, cigar-manufacturing units and oil presses. At its peak, more than 12 million cigars were manufactured and exported annually. Tanned hides and skins from Tiruchirappalli were exported to the United Kingdom. The city has a number of retail and wholesale markets, the most prominent among them being the
Gandhi Market, which also serves people from other parts of the district.
Other notable markets in the city are the flower bazaar in Srirangam
and the mango market at
Mambazha Salai
Mambazha Salai ( ta, மாம்பழ சாலை), meaning Mango Market in Tamil, is a commercial neighbourhood of Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, India. It houses one of the city's principal mango markets
Market is a term used to describe co ...
.
The suburb of
Manachanallur
Mannachanallur is a Taluk and Town in Tiruchirappalli district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Mannachanallur is famous for rice mills
Demographics
India census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calcula ...
is known for its rice mills, where polished ''
Ponni'' rice is produced.
Tiruchirappalli is a major engineering equipment manufacturing and fabrication hub in India.
The
Golden Rock Railway Workshop
The Golden Rock Railway Workshop (officially the Central Workshop, Golden Rock, abbreviated GOC), in Ponmalai (Golden Rock), Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, is one of three railway workshops serving Indian Railways' Southern Railway zone. Th ...
, which moved to Tiruchirappalli from
Nagapattinam in 1928, is one of the three railway
workshop–cum–production units in Tamil Nadu. The workshops produced 650 conventional and low-container flat wagons during 2007–2008.
A high-pressure boiler manufacturing plant was set up by
Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), India's largest public sector engineering company, in May 1965. This was followed by a
seamless steel plant and a boiler auxiliaries plant. In 2010, the Tiruchirappalli unit of the company contributed to nearly 30 per cent of its total sales, making it the largest of all units.
As of 2011, the Tiruchirappalli division employed about 10,000 people,
and is supported by a number of ancillary industries producing almost of fabricated materials.
These ancillary units together with BHEL contribute nearly 60 per cent of India's steel fabrication,
earning the city the title, "Energy equipment and fabrication capital of India". Other important industries in Tiruchirappalli include Trichy Distilleries and Chemicals Limited (TDCL), which was established at
Senthaneerpuram in the former Golden Rock municipality in 1966. and the Trichy Steel Rolling Mills, which was started as a private limited company on 27 June 1961. The Trichy Distilleries and Chemicals Limited manufactures
rectified spirit,
acetaldehyde
Acetaldehyde (IUPAC systematic name ethanal) is an organic chemical compound with the formula CH3 CHO, sometimes abbreviated by chemists as MeCHO (Me = methyl). It is a colorless liquid or gas, boiling near room temperature. It is one of the m ...
,
acetic acid
Acetic acid , systematically named ethanoic acid , is an acidic, colourless liquid and organic compound with the chemical formula (also written as , , or ). Vinegar is at least 4% acetic acid by volume, making acetic acid the main component ...
,
acetic anhydride
Acetic anhydride, or ethanoic anhydride, is the chemical compound with the formula (CH3CO)2O. Commonly abbreviated Ac2O, it is the simplest isolable anhydride of a carboxylic acid and is widely used as a reagent in organic synthesis. It is a colo ...
and
ethyl acetate. It is one of the biggest private sector distilleries in Tamil Nadu and produced of
spirit alcohol between December 2005 and November 2006.
The
Ordnance Factories Board
Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), consisting of the Indian Ordnance Factories, now known as Directorate of Ordnance (Coordination & Services) was an organisation, under the Department of Defence Production (DDP) of Ministry of Defence (MoD), Gover ...
runs a weapons manufacturing unit and a
Heavy Alloy Penetrator Project (HAPP) facility;
the latter was set up in the late 1980s and consists of a
flexible manufacturing system (FMS)—the first of its kind in India.
From the late 1980s, a synthetic gem industry was developed in the city; the gemstones are cut and polished in
Tiruchirappalli district and in
Pudukottai district
Pudukkottai District is one of the 38 districts of Tamil Nadu state in southern India. The city of Pudukkottai is the district headquarters. It is also known colloquially as ''Pudhugai.''
Pudukkottai district is bounded on the northeast and e ...
. In 1990, the Indian government launched a scheme to increase employment by boosting the production of
American diamonds and training local artisans in semi-automated machinery and technology. The local gem industry was reportedly generating annual revenues of by the mid-1990s. Concerns have been raised over the employment of children aged 9–14 in the gem cutting and polishing industry. As a result, in 1996, Tiruchirappalli district was selected to be involved in the
National Child Labour Project and in the running of special schools to educate working children.
As of December 2010, the Tiruchirappalli region annually exports around of software.
The
ELCOT IT Park Trichy
ELCOT IT Park Trichy is an information technology (IT) park in the city of Tiruchirappalli, India. It was set up in 2010 as part of an effort to foster the growth of information technology in various cities of Tamil Nadu by Electronics Corpo ...
—the city's first IT park—commissioned at a cost of was inaugurated in December 2010.
Set up by the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu, the park occupies an area of and constitutes a
Special Economic Zone
A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. SEZs are located within a country's national borders, and their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increas ...
.
Employing a workforce of over 1,500, more than six companies including
Vuram, iLink Systems Pvt. Ltd., Scientific Publishing Company, Vdart Technologies, GI Tech Gaming Co. India Pvt. Ltd., VR Della IT Services Pvt. Ltd., and the Tamil Nadu Disaster Recovery Centre function out of the existing building, occupying the entire built-up space. The
ELCOT IT Park Trichy
ELCOT IT Park Trichy is an information technology (IT) park in the city of Tiruchirappalli, India. It was set up in 2010 as part of an effort to foster the growth of information technology in various cities of Tamil Nadu by Electronics Corpo ...
is in close proximity to the Tiruchi International Airport. The facility was highlighted through the two editions of Global Investors Meet and became a key factor for the demand for the built-up space.
Culture
A resident of Tiruchirappalli is generally referred to as a ''Tiruchiite''.
Situated at the edge of the Kaveri Delta, the culture of Tiruchirappalli is predominantly
Brahminical
The historical Vedic religion (also known as Vedicism, Vedism or ancient Hinduism and subsequently Brahmanism (also spelled as Brahminism)), constituted the religious ideas and practices among some Indo-Aryan peoples of northwest Indian Subco ...
, prevalent elsewhere in the delta. With a substantial population of students and migrant industrial workers from different parts of India, Tiruchirappalli has a more cosmopolitan outlook than the surrounding countryside. The main festival celebrated in Tiruchirappalli is
Pongal Pongal may refer to:
* Pongal (festival), an annual Tamil festival
* Pongal (dish)
Pongal, also known as pongali or huggi, is an Indian rice dish. In Tamil, "pongal" means "boil" or "bubbling up". The two varieties of pongal are ''chakarai pong ...
, a regional harvest festival celebrated during January. As part of the Pongal celebrations,
Jallikattu, a bull-taming village sport played on the last day of the festival, is occasionally held on the outskirts of the city.
Aadi Perukku
Aadi Perukku () commonly known as the Aadi monsoon festival is South Indian cultural festival celebrated on the 18th day of the Tamil month of Adi. The festival pays tribute to water's life-sustaining properties. For the blessing of mankind wit ...
,
Samayapuram flower festival,
Vaikunta Ekadasi
Vaikuntha Ekadashi () is a Hindu occasion and festival. It is primarily observed by Vaishnavas, who regard it to be a special Ekādaśī. It coincides with '' Mokṣadā Ekādaśī'' or Putrada Ekādaśī. It is observed on the 11th lunar da ...
,
Srirangam car festival,
and the Teppakulam float festival are some of the prominent festivals that are held locally.
Bakrid
''Bakrid'' is a 2019 Indian Tamil language drama film written and directed by Jagadeesan Subu. The film stars Vikranth and a camel called Sarah. The film is the first Indian and Tamil film in Kollywood history to portray a camel in the pivotal ...
and
Eid al-Fitr
, nickname = Festival of Breaking the Fast, Lesser Eid, Sweet Eid, Sugar Feast
, observedby = Muslims
, type = Islamic
, longtype = Islamic
, significance = Commemoration to mark the end of fasting in Ramadan
, date ...
are also widely celebrated, owing to the substantial number of Muslims in the city.
Nationwide festivals such as the
Gregorian New Year,
Christmas,
Deepavali and
Holi are also celebrated in Tiruchirappalli.
The 12th century Tamil epic ''
Kambaramayanam
''Ramavataram'', popularly referred to as ''Kamba Ramayanam'', is a Tamil epic that was written by the Tamil poet Kambar during the 12th century. Based on Valmiki's ''Ramayana'' (which is in Sanskrit), the story describes the life of King ...
'' was first recited at the
Ranganathaswamy temple in Srirangam. In 1771, ''Rama Natakam'', a musical drama written
Arunachala Kavi
Arunachala Kavi ( ta, அருணாசல கவி) (1711–1779) was a Tamil poet and a composer of Carnatic music. He was born in Tillaiyadi in Thanjavur District in Tamil Nadu. The three Tamil composers Arunachala Kavi, Muthu Thandavar a ...
and based on the ''
Ramayana'', was also performed there. Tiruchirappalli was home to some of the prominent
Carnatic music
Carnatic music, known as or in the South Indian languages, is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and Sri Lanka. It is o ...
ians—including
Lalgudi Jayaraman
Lalgudi Gopala Iyer Jayaraman (17 September 1930 – 22 April 2013) was an Indian Carnatic violinist, vocalist and composer. He is commonly grouped with M.S. Gopalakrishnan and T.N.Krishnan as part of the violin-trinity of Carnatic Mu ...
,
Srirangam Kannan
Srirangam Kannan (born 5 May 1952) is an Indian musician and artist, known for playing the morsing. He has a degree in mathematics.
Profile
Vidwan Srirangam S. Kannan was born on 5 May 1952 in Srirangam to K Sathyamurthy and Kamalam. Growing up ...
and
A. K. C. Natarajan—and scholars such as
T. S. Murugesan Pillai, Kundalam Rangachariar and
K. A. P. Viswanatham. Composers, poets and vocalists such as
G. Ramanathan
Gopalan Iyer Ramanathan was an Indian music composer for Tamil movies. He is also known as ''Isai Methai'' (Genius of Music) or ''Sangeetha Chakravarthy'' (Emperor of Music) and is considered to be one of the influential Tamil music composers ...
,
T. K. Ramamoorthy
Trichirappalli Krishnasamy Ramamoorthy (15 May 1922 – 17 April 2013) was an Indian Tamil music composer and violinist.
Ramamoorthy was known as ''Mellisai Mannar'' ( ta, மெல்லிசை மன்னர்; "The King of Light Music") ...
,
Vaali and
P. Madhuri, who have made significant contributions to
Tamil film music
Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is popularly called ''Kollywood' ...
hail from the city.
Textile weaving, leather-work and gem cutting are some of the important crafts practised in Tiruchirappalli. Wooden idols of Hindu gods and goddesses are sold at ''Poompuhar'', the crafts emporium run by the Government of Tamil Nadu. The Trichy Travel Federation (TTF) was formed on 5 May 2009 to promote Tiruchirappalli as a favourable tourist destination.
The federation organises an annual food festival called ''Suvai''.
Lack of infrastructure has been a major deterrent to the city's tourism industry.
Landmarks
Once a part of the
Chola
The Chola dynasty was a Tamil thalassocratic empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated to the 3rd century BCE ...
kingdom, Tiruchirappalli
has a number of exquisitely sculpted temples and fortresses.
Most of the temples, including the Rockfort temples, the
Ranganathaswamy Temple at
Srirangam, the
Jambukeswarar Temple at Thiruvanaikkaval, the
Samayapuram Mariamman Temple
Arulmigu Mariamman Temple, Samayapuram is an ancient Hindu temple in Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, India. The main deity, ''Samayapurathal'' or ''Mariamman'', a form of supreme mother goddess Durga or Maha Kali or Aadi Shakthi, is made of sand ...
, the
Erumbeeswarar Temple,
Gneeliwaneswarar Temple at Thiruppaingneeli and the temples in
Urayur
Uraiyur (also spelt Woraiyur) is a posh locality in Tiruchirapalli city in Tamil Nadu, India. Uraiyur was the ancient name of Tiruchirappalli City. Now, it became the one of the busiest area in Trichy City. It was the capital of the early Chola ...
, are built in the
Dravidian style of architecture; the Ranganathaswamy Temple and Jambukeswarar Temple are often counted among the best examples of this style. The rock-cut cave temples of the Rockfort, along with the gateway and the Erumbeeswarar Temple, are listed as
monuments of national importance by the
Archaeological Survey of India
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexander ...
.
Considered one of the symbols of Tiruchirappalli, the Rockfort is a fortress which stands atop a 273-foot-high rock. It consists of a set of monolithic rocks accommodating many rock-cut cave temples. Originally built by the Pallavas, it was later reconstructed by the Madurai Nayaks and
Vijayanagara
Vijayanagara () was the capital city of the historic Vijayanagara Empire. Located on the banks of the Tungabhadra River, it spread over a large area and included the modern era Group of Monuments at Hampi site in Vijayanagara district, Bellar ...
rulers. The temple complex has three shrines, two of which are dedicated to
Lord Ganesha
Ganesha ( sa, गणेश, ), also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka, and Pillaiyar, is one of the best-known and most worshipped deities in the Hindu pantheon and is the Supreme God in Ganapatya sect. His image is found throughout India. Hindu de ...
, one at the foot and the
Ucchi Pillayar Temple at the top, and the
Thayumanavar Temple between them. The Thayumanavar temple, the largest of the three, houses a shrine for ''
Pārvatī
Parvati ( sa, पार्वती, ), Uma ( sa, उमा, ) or Gauri ( sa, गौरी, ) is the Hindu goddess of power, energy, nourishment, harmony, love, beauty, devotion, and motherhood. She is a physical representation of Mahadevi in ...
'' as well as the main deity. As per a legend, Vayu Bhaghvan and Adiseshan had a dispute to find out who is superior, to prove the superiority adiseshan encircled the Kailasam, Vayu tried to remove this encircle by creating santamarutham (Twister). Because of the santamarutham, eight kodumudigal (parts) fell from kailasam into eight different places which are Thirugonamalai (
Trincomalee, Sri Lanka),
Thirukalahasti, Thiruchiramalai (Rock fort),
Thiruenkoimalai,
Rajathagiri,
Neerthagiri,
Ratnagiri, and Swethagiri
Thirupangeeli.
The Rockfort is visible from almost every part of the city's north.
The Teppakulam at the foot of the Rockfort is surrounded by bazaars. It has a
mandapa at its centre.
The Ranganathaswamy Temple, dedicated to the Hindu god
Vishnu, is located on the island of Srirangam.
Often cited as the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world,
it has a perimeter of and occupies . Considered to be among the 108
Divya Desams (Holy shrines of Lord Vishnu), the temple is believed to house the mortal remains of the
Vaishnavite saint and philosopher
Ramanujacharya. Originally built by the Cholas, the temple was later renovated by the Pandyas, the
Hoysalas
The Hoysala Empire was a Kannadiga power originating from the Indian subcontinent that ruled most of what is now Karnataka between the 10th and the 14th centuries. The capital of the Hoysalas was initially located at Belur, but was later moved ...
, the Madurai Nayaks and the Vijayanagar empire between the 9th and 16th centuries AD. There are 21
gopurams (towers), of which the ''Rajagopuram'' is . According to the ''
Limca Book of Records
The ''Limca Book of Records'' is an annual reference book published in India documenting world records held by Indians. The records are further categorized into education, literature, agriculture, medical science, business, sports, nature, advent ...
'', it was the tallest temple tower in the world until 1999.
The
Jambukeswarar Temple at Thiruvanaikkaval and the
Erumbeeswarar Temple at Thiruverumbur were built in the rule of the Medieval Cholas. The Jambukeswarar Temple is one of the
Pancha Bhoota Stalam
Pancha Bhoota Sthalam refers to five temples dedicated to Shiva,Ramaswamy 2007, pp. 301-302 each representing a manifestation of the five prime elements of nature: earth, water, fire, air, and ether. ''Pancha'' indicates "five," ''Bhoota'' means ...
s dedicated to Lord Shiva; it is the fifth largest temple complex in Tamil Nadu. The city's best known mosque is the
Nadir Shah Mosque. The Christ Church constructed by the German Protestant missionary
Christian Friedrich Schwarz
Christian Frederick Schwarz (with spellings including Friedrich and Schwartz or Swartz) (8 October 1726 – 13 February 1798) was a German Lutheran missionary to India. He was known for his linguistic skills, with knowledge of Latin, Greek, Hebre ...
in 1766 and the
Our Lady of Lourdes Church are noted examples of
Gothic Revival architecture in the city.
The
Chokkanatha Nayak Palace, which houses the
Rani Mangammal Mahal, was built by the Madurai Nayaks in the 17th century; it has now been converted into a museum. The
Nawab's palace, the
Railway Heritage Centre,
the
Upper Anaicut
The Upper Anaicut (alternatively Upper Anicut), also known as Mukkombu is a dam built on the Kaveri River in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India. The regulator dam was constructed between 1836 and 1838 by Sir Arthur Cotton, a British irri ...
constructed by
Sir Arthur Cotton, and the world's oldest functional dam, the
Grand Anaicut
Kallanai (also known as the Grand Anicut) is an ancient dam. It is built (in running water) across the Kaveri river flowing from Tiruchirapalli District to Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, India. The dam located in Thanjavur
district. Locate ...
, are some of the other important structures in Tiruchirappalli.
Education
Tiruchirappalli has been recognised in India as an important educational centre since the time of British rule.
St. Joseph's College, which opened in Nagapattinam in 1846 and transferred to Tiruchirappalli in 1883, is one of the oldest educational institutions in South India. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) college, established in 1883, is a premium missionary institution in the city.
As of 2013, Tiruchirappalli has 45 arts and science colleges, 40 polytechnic colleges and 13 colleges that offer management education. National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli is located in a area of 800 acres. National Institutional Ranking Framework ranked this NIT the first among other others in India.
The St. Joseph's College,
National College,
Bishop Heber College
Bishop Heber College is a religious minority educational institution in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded in 1966, although the school has historical roots extending through various earlier local religious schools to about the m ...
,
Jamal Mohamed College
Jamal Mohamed College is a Government-aided and self-financed institution founded in 1951 by M. Jamal Mohamed Sahib and N.M. Khajamian Rowther. The college campus is located in Tiruchirappalli, India and is affiliated to Bharathidasan Univers ...
and the
Government Law College are prominent colleges providing higher education in the arts and sciences. There are approximately 35 engineering colleges in and around the city.
The
National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli established by the government in 1964 as the Regional Engineering College, has a campus at
Thuvakudi
Thuvakudi is a town in Tiruchirapalli district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is an industrial town housing more than 250 industries and is located in the National Highway NH 65 between Tiruchirapalli and Thanjavur. The town has a dry w ...
on the outskirts of Tiruchirappalli.
The
Anbil Dharmalingam Agricultural College and Research Institute was established as a constituent college of
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in 1989, and th
National Research Centre for Bananaoffer higher education and research in agriculture. The
Tiruchirappalli branch of Anna University was established after the bifurcation of Anna University in 2007.
64 self-financing colleges which offer courses in engineering, architecture, management and computer applications in the districts of
Ariyalur
Ariyalur () is a town and district headquarters of Ariyalur district in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu and is rich in limestone, surrounded with seven cement factories and two sugar factories. The town is located at a distance of from th ...
,
Cuddalore,
Nagapattinam,
Perambalur
Perambalur is a town in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the headquarters of Perambalur district and Perambalur ''taluk'' (sub-district). census, the town had a population of 49,648.
There are a set of 11th century Buddha statues aroun ...
,
Pudukkottai
Pudukkottai is the administrative headquarters of Pudukkottai District in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is a large city located on the banks of the Vellar River. It has been ruled, at different times, by the mutharaiyar dynasty , Cholas ...
,
Thanjavur and
Tiruvarur are affiliated to Anna University.
The
SRM Group of Colleges established the
SRM Institute of Science and Technology
SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST), formerly SRM University, is a private higher education institute deemed to be university, located in Kattankulathur, Chengalpattu (near Chennai), Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 1985 as SRM Engin ...
at
Irungalur near Tiruchirappalli; this was followed by Chennai Medical College and Hospital in 2007. A proposal by the group to include the institutions in SRM University is under review by the Ministry of Human Resources Development of the Government of India.
The
Bharathidasan University
Bharathidasan University (BDU) is a university in the city of Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India. It is located on Tiruchirappalli-Pudukkottai National Highway 336. It has affiliated colleges in the districts of Ariyalur district, Karur, Nag ...
was established in Tiruchirappalli in 1982 and controls 104 colleges in Tiruchirappalli district and seven neighbouring districts.
The university also runs a management school, the
Bharathidasan Institute of Management
Bharathidasan Institute of Management, Tiruchirappalli (known by its abbreviation BIM-Trichy) is an Indian business school established in 1984 in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India. The school offers AICTE approved full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, ...
in the city in collaboration with BHEL.
The
Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli was set up during the
Eleventh Five-Year Plan, along with five other IIMs opened during the 2011–12 academic season.
In 2013, the
Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) approved
Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), and the
Tamil Nadu National Law School, modelled on the
National Law School of India University
The National Law School of India University (NLSIU or simply NLS) is a public law school and a National Law University located in Bangalore, Karnataka. It was the first National Law University to be established in India as well as one of the f ...
, both started their operations in the city. The city is also the regional headquarters of the
Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha
Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha is an organisation whose main goal is to improve Hindi literacy among the non-Hindi speaking people of South India. The headquarters are located at Thanikachalam Road, T. Nagar, Chennai.
The organisation wa ...
for the state of Tamil Nadu.
There are 200 higher secondary schools in Tiruchirappalli;
notable ones are the
St. Johns Vestry Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School,
,
St Joseph's Anglo Indian Girls Higher Secondary School,
Railway Mixed Higher Secondary School,
Higher Secondary School for Boys, Srirangam
The Higher Secondary School for Boys, Srirangam is a secondary school located in, Srirangam, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, India.
History
The school was founded by V. Veeraraghavachari in 1896. The headmasters of the school were M. C. Rajagopla ...
and
RSK Higher Secondary School.
Notable people who were either born or educated at Tiruchirappalli include
C. V. Raman
Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (; 7 November 188821 November 1970) was an Indian physicist known for his work in the field of light scattering.
Using a spectrograph that he developed, he and his student K. S. Krishnan discovered that when ...
,
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (; 15 October 193127 July 2015) was an Indian aerospace scientist and statesman who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. He was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu and studied phy ...
,
Sujatha,
Vaali,
G. N. Ramachandran
Gopalasamudram Narayanan Ramachandran, or G.N. Ramachandran, FRS (8 October 1922 – 7 April 2001) was an Indian physicist who was known for his work that led to his creation of the Ramachandran plot for understanding peptide structure. He wa ...
, and former President of India
R. Venkataraman
Ramaswamy Venkataraman (, 4 December 191027 January 2009) was an Indian lawyer, Indian independence activist and politician who served as a Union Minister and as the eighth president of India.
Venkataraman was born in Rajamadam village in Ta ...
.
Sports
Hockey
Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...
and
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
are the most popular sports in Tiruchirappalli.
Former Indian hockey goalkeepers
Charles Cornelius and
Leslie Fernandez;
Rajagopal Sathish
Rajagopal Sathish (born 14 January 1981) is an Indian former first-class cricketer who played as an all-rounder.
He was captain of the India XI in the Indian Cricket League Twenty20 competition. He played for Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy a ...
who represents the
Mumbai Indians in the
Indian Premier League
The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as Tata Group, TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 cricket, T20 Professional sports league organization, franchise cricket Sports league, league of India. It is annually contested by ...
; and
Dharmaraj Ravanan who represents
Chennai City F.C. in the
I League
The I-League (known as Hero I-League for sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp) is the second-tier men's professional football competition of the Indian football league system. It is currently contested by 12 clubs across the country with the wi ...
; all hail from the city. The
Anna Stadium complex is the main venue for sports in the city; it hosts an indoor stadium and an
astro turf
Astro may refer to:
Entertainment and media
* Astro (South Korean band), a South Korean boy band
* Astro (UB40) (1957–2021), member of the British reggae band UB40
* Astro (Chilean band), a Chilean indie rock band
* Astro (Japanese band) ...
hockey ground.
The stadium complex also includes a football ground, an athletic track, a swimming pool, a gymnasium, a badminton court and a hostel for the athletes.
The Tiruchirappalli District Cricket Association (TDCA) is one of the constituents of the
Tamil Nadu Cricket Association
Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) is the governing body of cricket activities in the India state of Tamil Nadu. It is affiliated to the Board of Control for Cricket in India and governs the Tamil Nadu cricket team. Rupa Gurunath is the fo ...
, and regulates school, college and club cricket in the district.
First class cricket matches were held at the
Jawaharlal Nehru Stadiumformerly the Khajamalai Stadium.
At the association's golden jubilee celebrations in 2008–09, plans for the establishment of another cricket stadium and an academy in the outskirts of Tiruchirappalli city were mooted.
The
Mannarpuram Cricket Academy is one of the noted cricket coaching academies in Tiruchirappalli.
Domestic association football, tennis and volleyball tournaments are held in and around the city.
Tiruchirappalli hosted the
Federation Cup Federation Cup or Fed Cup is the former name of the premier world team competition in women's tennis.
Federation Cup may also refer to:
*Capital Football Federation Cup, an Australian territory-based association football tournament
*Federation Cup ...
, a knockout-style club football tournament in 1984 and an open chess tournament organised by
FIDE
The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...
in 2006.
Media
According to the
Registrar of Newspapers in India, more than 100 newspapers have been registered in Tiruchirappalli as of November 2013.
[ On this page, enter "Trichy", "Tiruchirapalli", "Tiruchirappalli" and "Tiruchi" in the tab to get the name and other details of the newspapers.] The weekly newspaper ''Wednesday Review'', founded in 1905, is the first prominent journal to be published in Tiruchirappalli. Among the major English-language newspapers being published in Tiruchirappalli are ''
The Hindu'' which launched a Tiruchirappalli edition in 2004,
and ''
The New Indian Express'', which was publishing in Tiruchirappalli before ''The Hindu''. Some of the important Tamil-language newspapers that publish a Tiruchirappalli edition are ''
Dina Thanthi
''Dina Thanthi'' ( en, Daily Mail; known as Daily Thanthi in English) is a Tamil language daily newspaper. It was founded by S. P. Adithanar in Madurai in 1942. ''Dina Thanthi'' is India's largest daily printed in the Tamil language and the ni ...
''
''
Dina Mani'',
''
Dina Malar
''Dinamalar'' is an Indian Tamil daily newspaper. It was founded in 1951 by T. V. Ramasubba Iyer. ''Dinamalar'' has an average circulation of 942,812 (ABC Jan-June 2016)
History
Dinamalar was founded by T. V. Ramasubbaiyer on 6 September 195 ...
'', ''
Malai Malar
''Maalai Malar'' is a daily evening Tamil newspaper. It is owned by Daily Thanti group. It was founded by S. P. Adithanar in 1977 at Coimbatore. Maalai Malar has twelve editions published from Chennai, Vellore, Dindigul, Thanjavur, Tirunel ...
'', ''
Dinakaran
Dinakaran is a Tamil daily newspaper distributed in Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded by K. P. Kandasamy in 1977 and is currently owned by media conglomerate Sun Group's- Sun Network.''Dinakaran'' is the second largest circulated Tamil daily ...
'', ''
Tamil Murasu
''Tamil Murasu'' ( ta, தமிழ் முரசு) is a Singapore-based Tamil-language newspaper. Launched in 1935 by Thamizhavel G. Sarangapani, Tamil Murasu is Singapore's only Tamil-language newspaper. It is one of the sixteen newspa ...
'' and ''
Tamil Sudar
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
''.
The popular Tamil weekly ''
Ananda Vikatan
''Ananda Vikatan'' is a Tamil-language weekly magazine published from Chennai, India.
History and profile
''Ananda Vikatan'' was started by Late Pudhoor Vaidyanadhaiyar in February 1926 as a monthly publication. The issue for December 1927 wa ...
'' launched a local supplement for Tiruchirappalli in 2011.
The first radio transmission station in Tiruchirappalli was opened by
All India Radio
All or ALL may refer to:
Language
* All, an indefinite pronoun in English
* All, one of the English determiners
* Allar language (ISO 639-3 code)
* Allative case (abbreviated ALL)
Music
* All (band), an American punk rock band
* ''All'' (All ...
(AIR) on 16 May 1939. AIR started providing direct-to-home enabled radio broadcasting service from 2006.
In 2007, the AIR launched ''Ragam'', a separate Carnatic music station, from the city.
Apart from the
government-owned AIR, private FM radio stations such as
Hello and
Suryan FM
Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء '), also spelled San'a or Sana, is a governorate of Yemen. Its capital is Sanaa, which is also the national capital. However, the city of Sanaa is not part of the governorate but instead forms the separate governorate ...
and
Mirchi 95.0 from Tiruchirappalli.
Indira Gandhi National Open University
Indira Gandhi National Open University, known as IGNOU, is a Central University located at Maidan Garhi, New Delhi, India. Named after former Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi, the university was established in 1985 with a budget of 20& ...
's ''Gyan Vani'' started broadcasting from the city in 2008.
Tiruchirappalli's first campus community radio station was started by Holy Cross College on 22 December 2006.
Television broadcasting from Chennai was started on 15 August 1975.
Satellite television channels have been available since 1991. Direct-to-home cable television services are provided by
DD Direct Plus
DD Free Dish (previously known as DD Direct Plus) is an Indian free-to-air satellite television provider. DD Free Dish DTH service is owned and operated by Public Service Broadcaster Prasar Bharati. It was launched in December, 2004. In March 2 ...
and various other operators.
Transport
The most commonly used modes of local transport in Tiruchirappalli are the state government-owned
Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation
Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Ltd. - (TNSTC) is a Government owned public transport bus operator in Tamil Nadu, India. It operates Intercity bus services to cities within Tamil Nadu, and from Tamil Nadu to its neighbouring states. It al ...
(TNSTC) buses, and
auto rickshaw
An auto rickshaw is a motorized version of the pulled rickshaw or cycle rickshaw. Most have three wheels and do not tilt. They are known by many terms in various countries including auto, auto rickshaw, baby taxi, mototaxi, pigeon, jonnybee, bajaj ...
s.
Tiruchirappalli forms a part of the Kumbakonam division of the TNSTC.
The city has two major bus termini;
Chatram Bus Stand
Chathiram Bus Stand, Tiruchirappalli, old name ''Chinnaiya Pillai Chathiram'' also popularly known Chathiram perundu nilayam or Chathiram Bus Stand, is one of the bus termini of Trichy, other being the Central Bus Stand. The terminus is locate ...
and
Central Bus Stand
Central Bus Station, popularly known as Central Bus Stand, is one of the bus termini of Trichy, located near Cantonment, the other being the Chatram Bus Stand.
The terminus spread over an area of is managed by the Department of Transport (T ...
, both of which operate intercity services and local transport to suburban areas.
Tiruchirappalli sits at the junction of two major National Highways
NH 45 and
NH 67
National Highway 67 (NH 67, previously National Highway 63) is a major National Highway in India. It starts at Ramnagar on NH 748, Belagavi - Panjim Road of Karnataka and ends at Krishnapatnam Port road in Andhra Pradesh.
Currently four ...
. NH 45 is one of the most congested highways in south India and carries almost 10,000 lorries on the Tiruchirappalli–Chennai stretch every night. Other National Highways originating in the city are
NH 45B,
NH 210 and
NH 227.
State highways that start from the city include
SH 25 and SH 62. Tiruchirappalli has of road maintained by the municipal corporation. A semi-ring road connecting all the National Highways is being constructed to ease traffic congestion in the city. As of 2013, approximately 328,000 two-wheelers, 93,500 cars and 10,000 public transport vehicles operate within the city limits,
apart from the 1,500 inter-city buses that pass through Tiruchirappalli daily.
[ Tiruchirappalli suffers from traffic congestion mainly because of its narrow roads and absence of an integrated bus station.]
Passenger trains also carry a significant number of passengers from nearby towns. The Great Southern of India Railway Company was established in 1853 with its headquarters at England. In 1859, the company constructed its first railway line connecting Tiruchirappalli and Nagapattinam. The company merged with the Carnatic Railway Company in 1874 to form the South Indian Railway Company
The South Indian Railway Company operated a number of gauge lines in South India from 1874 to 1951.
History
The Great Southern of India Railway Company was established with its headquarters in England in 1853. The Carnatic Railway Company wa ...
with Tiruchirappalli as its headquarters. The city retained the position until 1908 when the company's headquarters was transferred to Madras. is one of the busiest in India. It constitutes a separate division of the Southern Railway. Tiruchirappalli has rail connectivity with most important cities and towns in India. Other railway stations in the city include , , , and .
Tiruchirappalli is served by Tiruchirappalli International Airport
Tiruchirappalli International Airport (IATA: TRZ, ICAO: VOTR) is an international airport serving Tiruchirappalli in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The airport spread over an area of is located on National Highway 336, about south of the ci ...
, from the city centre. The airport handles fivefold more international air traffic than domestic services, making it the only airport in India with this huge variation. It serves as a gateway to immigrants from South-east Asian countries There are regular flights to Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Colombo, Dubai
Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics o ...
, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore. The airport handled more than 1 million passengers and 2012 tonnes of cargo during the fiscal year 2013–14.
See also
* Tiruchirappalli metropolitan area
* List of people from Tiruchirappalli
* Classification of Indian cities
The ''classification of Indian cities'' is a ranking system used by the Government of India to allocate House Rent Allowance (HRA) to public servants employed in cities in India. HRA is also used by the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) to provide inc ...
Notes
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External links
Trichy District
Trichy Corporation
{{Authority control
Tiruchirappalli
Metropolitan cities in India
Ancient Indian cities
Cities and towns in Tiruchirappalli district
Former capital cities in India