Vazhapadi (Valapady, or Valappadi) is a

town panchayat A nagar panchayat () or town panchayat or Notified Area Council (NAC) in India is a settlement in transition from rural to urban and therefore a form of an urban political unit comparable to a municipality. An urban centre with more than 12,00 ...

Salem district Salem District is one of the 38 districts of Tamil Nadu state in southern India. The district is now divided into Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Namakkal as individual districts. Salem is the district headquarters and other major towns in the dis ...

in the

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, for a total of 36 subnational entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into 800 districts and smaller administrative divisions by the respe ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

. It is the headquarters of

Vazhapadi taluk Vazhapadi taluk is one of the thirteen taluks of Salem district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The headquarters of the taluk is the town of Vazhapadi. Administration Vazhapadi taluk is divided into two revenue blocks, Valapady block and Ayot ...

, one of the 13

taluk A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administrative ...

s of Salem district.

Geography

Vazhapadi is within Vazhapadi taluk, which is the central part of Salem district. It covers in the eastern part of the taluk, near the border with

Attur taluk Attur Taluk is one of the ''taluks'', or administrative division of Salem District in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The division's headquarters is Attur town. Background Attur Taluk is surrounded by Gangavalli Taluk on east and Pethanaick ...

. National Highway 79 passes to the south of the town, and the only railroad line in the taluk runs through the town. It is east of

Salem Salem may refer to: Places Canada * Salem, Ontario, various places Germany * Salem, Baden-Württemberg, a municipality in the Bodensee district ** Salem Abbey (Reichskloster Salem), a monastery * Salem, Schleswig-Holstein Israel * Salem (B ...

, the district headquarters, north of

Madurai Madurai ( , , ), formerly known as Madura, is a major city in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District, which is ...

, and southwest of the state capital of

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

Demographics

In 2011 Vazhapadi had a population of 17,559 people living in 4,582 households. 8,843 (50.4%) of the inhabitants were male, while 8,716 (49.6%) were female. 1,679 children in the town, about 9.6% of the population, were at or below the age of 6. The literacy rate in the town was 74.4%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes accounted for 26.4% and 0.26% of the population, respectively.

Politics

Former union minister Vazhappady K. Ramamurthy was born in Vazhapadi. He served as Union Minister of Petroleum as part of NDA government under Atal Behari Vajpayee. He was widely known as Valappadiyar.

References

Cities and towns in Salem district {{SalemIN-geo-stub