About Thoothukudi

Located on the south east corner of Tamil Nadu, Thoothukudi is a well known coastal town of South India. The entire Thoothukudi district was carved out of Tirunelveli district in 1986. Thoothukudi is famous for being the pearl city of India. Situated amidst the famous cities like Kanyakumari, Madurai and Rameshwaram makes it one of the preferred destinations among tourists. Various islands located around the city lures thousands of vacationers every year.

Geography of Thoothukudi

Thoothukudi is located at a distance of about 540 Km from Chennai and the entire district is spread across an area of 4621 square kilometers. Entire district is surrounded by Virudhunagar district, Ramanathapuram district and Tirunelveli district on its North and on the south east and east by Gulf of Mannar. Thoothukudi city is located at 8.53?N and 78.36?E with an elevation of 4 Meter. The soil of this reason is mostly clay sandy due to the coastal area.

Business and Economy of Thoothukudi

One of the major contributors to the economy of Thoothukudi is its Salt Pans, producing 1.2 millions of salt every year. It stands at 90% of total salt produced by the state of Tamil Nadu and at 50% of what is needed by the chemical factories of the state. Fishing is another major contributor to the economy of Thoothukudi city. Apart from these two industries, several other including agricultural, shipping, chemical and power industries are also flourishing in the city. There are many power plants located in the area including Tuticorin Thermal Power Station, Coastal Energen, Sterlite Industries Captive power plant and Ind Barath Power Limited. There are several small scale, medium scale and large scale industries are located here.

Demographics of Thoothukudi

The population of the Thoothukudi city stands at 237,830 with more women population then men as per the census of 2011. Literacy rate of the city is 83.85% which is much higher than our national literacy rate of 72.99%. As far as the working population of the city is considered, there are 83,669 workers in total comprising of 1498 in household industries, 114 cultivators, 4483 marginal workers, 154 main agricultural labourers, 77,420 other workers, 4109 other marginal workers, 25 marginal agricultural workers, 69 marginal cultivators and 280 marginal workers in household industries. Tamil is the official language of the town.

Tourism in Thoothukudi

Churches, beaches, islands and temples are what made hoothukudi extremely famous among tourists. It has something to enjoy for everybody. The most famous temples of the area are Sri Sankara Rameshwara Temple and Sri Vaikundapathy Temple. Both of these temples were constructed by Pandya Kings in ancient times. Seashore temple of Lord Subramanya is another gem in the list of tourist places of Thoothukudi. Panimaya Matha is the most famous church of the area. It was constructed in 1714 by Portugeese.

Climate of Thoothukudi

Thoothukudi enjoys tropical climate conditions throughout the year. Summers are pretty hot and humid, while winters are gentler in terms of weather. Rain showers are a frequent thing of this climate. Summer months take place between March and June. Monsoon months are considered between October and November. Minimum and maximum temperature of Thoothukudi varies between 26 degrees Celsius to 41 degrees Celsius respectively. Total rainfall received by the area is 444 mm. Coolest and hottest months of the season are January and May-June respectively.

Transport in Thoothukudi

Transportation facilities are available through all modes including Road, Rail and Air. Although the air travel is still limited in the area, but two daily flights to Chennai are available from the Tuticorin Airport which is located at Vagaikulam, 14 Km from the city. There are two railway stations located in the city including Tuticorin Railway Station and Tuticorin Melur, first one is the main railway station and is one of the oldest railway stations of India. Daily trains are available to various destinations including Bangalore, Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli, Pune, Mysore, Ahmedabad etc. from here. There are two bus stands including old bus stand and new bus stand are located in the city and operates 700 buses on a regular basis. The Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation is responsible for offering connectivity between various cities of the state. As far as long distance buses are concerned, The State Express Transport Corporation is responsible for the same and offer bus services between various cities including Chennai, Kanyakumari and Bangalore.

Facts and Figures of Thoothukudi