Katpadi

Politics and geography

Once a village, Katpadi was upgraded to a panchayat town, with its own taluk office. It has a major assembly constituency which is part of Arakkonam (Lok Sabha constituency).

Katpadi lies in the northern side of the Palar River with the Andhra Pradesh state border just a five-minute drive from Katpadi Junction. When Vellore was upgraded to a corporation, Katpadi was also included in its city limits.

The original Katpadi village is now called Old Katpadi which lies on road which connects Thiruvalam and Chittor bus stop. The Government Boys Higher Secondary School located here is more than 100 years old.

A broad gauge railway line which connects Tamil Nadu to Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu (Chennai - Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram and Tirupathi - Mysore) passes through Katpadi. The railway station is location on Cuddalor - Chittor State Highway, SH 9 (now NH-234).

Katpadi Junction is the name of the primary railway station of Vellore city, providing connections to virtually every city and town in India.

Vellore Institute of Technology University (VIT)

The Vellore Institute of Technology University (popularly known as VIT) is in Katpadi. Ranked as the best private engineering university in India by the magazine India Today, VIT University has six schools of study and also houses the VIT Business School. VIT is also the first Indian university to be accredited by the prestigious Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) in London and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) in the US. The college has around 15,000 students from all over India and from over 20 countries.

Vellore-Katpadi Junction

Katpadi Junction is located in the city of Vellore and is the largest railway junction in the city and the district. One of the most important railway junctions in Southern Railway, it is one of the top ten revenue-yielding railway stations in Tamil Nadu. Bearing the station code KPD, it has four direction routes: northeast direction to Chennai, northwest to Andhra Pradesh and North India, southwest towards Coimbatore, Karnataka and Kerala, and south to Kanyakumari, Madurai.

It is also important because the Chennai-Bangalore and Chennai-Mysore Shatabdi Express stops at it, being the only junction the Shatabdi stops and excepting the Chennai-Kovai Duronto non-stop express, all the fast trains stops here. More than 150 trains cross through Vellore's Katpadi Junction daily. The number of commuters has increased tremendously mainly due to the Christian Medical College & Hospital (CMC), Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), the temple town of Tirupati and more recently the Golden temple at Sripuram, Vellore. Katpadi Junction handles more than 20,000 passengers a day.

Chittoor bus stand

Named for once being the starting point for all Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh buses, it is the third largest bus terminus in the city of Vellore. There is a statue of C. N. Annadurai there, and there are buses to Gudiyatham, Walaja, Arcot, Ranipet, Thiruvalam, Ponnai, Vallimalai and Muthukadai from here. There is a new building being built by the corporation for shops and a public shelter.

Bus route

The local Vellore city bus starts off from Senguttai to Bagayam (via Central Bus Terminus, CMC and Town Bus Terminus).

Important statues, cinema

There are four statues of leaders in Katpadi, located in four major bus stops.

The theaters in Katpadi are: