Uchipuli or Uchippuli is a locality in the

Mandapam Mandapam is a panchayat town in Ramanathapuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The famed Pamban Railway bridge and Vehicular bridge lie to the East of this Panchayat Town. Mandapam is Tamil Nadu’s largest refugee camp for Sri L ...

block of

Ramanathapuram district Ramanathapuram District, also known as Ramnad District, is one of the 38 districts an administrative districts of Tamil Nadu state in southern India. The old Ramanathapuram District consists of Present day Virudhunagar and Sivagangai districts, ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil languag ...

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. It is a major source of water supply for the

Ramanathapuram Ramanathapuram (), also known as Ramnad, is a town and a municipality in Ramanathapuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the administrative headquarters of Ramanathapuram district and the second largest town (by population) i ...

town. An

Indian Navy The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates sig ...

air station,

INS Parundu INS Parundu is an Indian naval air station located near Uchipuli in the Ramanathapuram of the state of Tamil Nadu. It operates under the Eastern Naval Command of the Indian Navy. The air station will be opened up for civilian flights under Pha ...

, is located near Uchipuli.

Transport

Uchipuli is located on the National Highway 49 (NH 49)or 85 that connects

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of ...

Rameswaram Rameswaram (; also transliterated as Ramesvaram, Rameshwaram) is a municipality in the Ramanathapuram district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is on Pamban Island separated from mainland India by the Pamban channel and is about 40 ki ...

. The Uchippuli Railway Station (code UCP) is located on the

Rameshwaram Rameswaram (; also transliterated as Ramesvaram, Rameshwaram) is a municipality in the Ramanathapuram district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is on Pamban Island separated from mainland India by the Pamban channel and is about 40 ki ...

route.

Madurai Airport Madurai Airport is a customs airport serving Madurai and its adjoining districts in Tamil Nadu, India. It is the 36th busiest airport in India, both in terms of passengers handled and aircraft movement. The airport is located near State Highwa ...

(140 km) is the nearest airport.

Naval air station

An Indian naval air station located near Uchipuli has been in operation since 1982 at the site of the abandoned Ramnad Civil Aerodrome. Initially known as ''INS Rajali II'', it was formally recommissioned as "INS Parundu" on 26 March 2009 by the Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral

Sureesh Mehta Admiral Sureesh Mehta, PVSM, AVSM (born August 18, 1947) served as 19th Chief of the Indian Navy from 31 October 2006 until 31 August 2009. He was succeeded by Nirmal Kumar Verma. He is the first service chief from India's armed forces to be b ...

. INS Parundu is used primarily as a reconnaissance station to monitor the South East

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line bet ...

, the

Palk Strait The Palk Strait ( ta, பாக்கு நீரிணை ''Pākku Nīriṇai'', si, පෝක් සමුද්‍ර සන්ධිය ''Pok Samudra Sandhiya'') is a strait between the Tamil Nadu state of India and the Jaffna Distri ...

, and the

Gulf of Mannar The Gulf of Mannar ( ) is a large shallow bay forming part of the Laccadive Sea in the Indian Ocean with an average depth of .

. A number of naval air squadrons operating

Dornier 228 The Dornier 228 is a twin- turboprop STOL utility aircraft, designed and first manufactured by Dornier GmbH (later DASA Dornier, Fairchild-Dornier) from 1981 until 1998. Two hundred and forty-five were built in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. In ...

and

Britten-Norman Islander The Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander is a British light utility aircraft and regional airliner designed and originally manufactured by Britten-Norman of the United Kingdom. Still in production, the Islander is one of the best-selling commercial ai ...

aircraft,

HAL Chetak HAL may refer to: Aviation * Halali Airport (IATA airport code: HAL) Halali, Oshikoto, Namibia * Hawaiian Airlines (ICAO airline code: HAL) * HAL Airport, Bangalore, India * Hindustan Aeronautics Limited an Indian aerospace manufacturer of figh ...

helicopters and UAV squadrons are based here. In 2007,

Tamil Nadu Police Tamil Nadu Police is the primary law enforcement agency of the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is over 150 years old and is the fifth largest state police force in India.

recovered 1950 detonators hidden in a coconut grove at Uchipuli. They were suspected to have been stashed there by the

LTTE The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; ta, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், translit=Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, si, දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, t ...

for use against

Sri Lankan Military The Sri Lanka Armed Forces is the overall unified military of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka encompassing the Sri Lanka Army, the Sri Lanka Navy, and the Sri Lanka Air Force; they are governed by the Ministry of Defence (Sri Lank ...

.LTTE air attack, IAF sets up radar near Rameswaram
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References

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External links

Cities and towns in Ramanathapuram district