Gudivada

History

The name Gudivada was derived from Gudi meaning Temple and Vada means Settlement or town in Telugu language. The presence of Habitation at this town may be dated back to 3rd Century BCE or 2nd Century BCE since the time of Sathavahanas as per some inscriptions. Archaeological excavations conducted at Gudivada yielded an ancient Buddhist Stupa Mound and Jain relics. Gudivada is religiously diversified small town with many Hindu Temples and important Jain Tirth of Bhagawan Parshvanath located at market road.

Geography

It is located in the Coastal Andhra region of the state. Gudivada is located 41 kilometres (25.5 mi) east of the district headquarters, Machilipatnam, and 45 kilometres (36.7 mi) south of by road to Amaravati (state capital) It lies on the Eastern coastal plains. The city is located in zone 3 as per Earthquake zones of India.

Climate

Gudivada falls in the hot humid region of the country and it is less than 35 miles from Bay of Bengal. The climate of the town is very hot and it is pleasant during the winter. The hottest day falls in the month of May with shift to June during some years. The maximum temperature observed is 55 C and the minimum temperature observed is 09.80C.

Demographics

As of 2011 census of India, Gudivada had a population of 118,167 with 30,834 households. The total population constitute 59,062 males, 59,105 females and 10,509 in the age group of 0–6 years. It had an average literacy rate of 81.64% with 87,887 literates, significantly higher than the district average of 73.7% and the state average of 67.41%.

Government and politics

Civic administration

Gudivada municipality was constituted in the year 1937 as a 'third grade municipality. It was upgraded to special grade municipality and is spread over an area of 12.67 km² (4.89 sq mi) with 36 election wards. YSR Congress Party won the Gudivada municipal elections in 2014 and the present chairman of the municipality is Yalavarthi Srinivas. The present municipal commissioner is M.Seshagiri.

Transport

Bus and rail are the major modes of public transport. APSRTC operates buses from Gudivada bus station, which is equipped with a bus depot for storage and maintenance of buses. The city has a total road length of 115.00 km (71.46 mi). The national and state highways that pass through the city include, NH 165–connecting Kathipudi and Pamarru; Gudivada is one of the fourteen B–category stations in the Vijayawada railway division of South Central Railway zone.

Education

The primary and secondary school education is imparted by government, aided and private schools, under the School Education Department of the state. The medium of instruction followed by different schools are English, Telugu.

The private aided colleges are, ANR college and KT Reddy women's college. There are eleven other unaided private colleges for undergraduate and postgraduate education. One-fourth of the passed out school children will enroll for college education. There are colleges for vocational courses such as, Gudivada Vocational Junior College and St.Johns Vocational Junior College; industrial training centres inlclude, Gudivada Industrial Training Centre, Government Industrial Training Institute for Girls. It is home for Regional Research Institute for Homeopathy.

Sports

NTR Stadium in the city was built in partnership with Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh, the Sports Authority of India and the Gudivada Municipality. It is the multi-purpose stadium for several sports like, athletics, volleyball, cricket, kho kho, kabaddi, badminton, tennikoit and basketball. In January 2016, the stadium hosted the National Rural Sports and Games competition, under the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Abhiyan.