Main road of Vellore

A divided road with a four feet high median wall that represents hustle and bustle of Vellore during the day extends from Sepoy Mutiny statue on the north side and to the Vhooreese college campus on the south side.

Pictures of moat around the Vellore Fort

Brand new pictures of the moat around the vellore fort are added here.

Click on the images below to enlarge to view the details.

Star of Vellore

I love using Google earth. Recently when I was it to view the city of Vellore, I saw this place which looked like a perfect star. Here it is

Click on the image to enlarge to view the details

Vellore cantonment railway station

Most people only know Katpadi railway station as the destination to come to Vellore. Many don’t know that there’s a railway station in Vellore too. For a long time Vellore railway station was served by meter gauge trains but recently gauge conversion and electrification took place and now any broad gauge train can go there. Citizens of in Vellore need not come to Katpadi junction to catch a train.

Now there’s direct train (Electric Multiple Unit of EMU) between Vellore Cantonment to Chennai Beach and Tirupathy . Those that are coming from Chennai/ Arakkonam/ Tirupathy direction to visit the Golden Temple, need not disembark at Katpai junction but continue to travel up to Vellore cantonment whereby they can avoid major traffic congestion of the city and from cantonment one can take an auto rickshaw to go the temple. From cantonment station, Golden temple is about 7 KM and.

Glaring feature of the Vellore cantonment railway station is its parking space. Between cantonment station and Katpadi junction, there’s one station called “Vellore Town” just behind the vellore fort.

First image below is the entrance to the Vellore cantonment railway station. Second one is the station itself (note the details to resemble the station like Vellore Fort). Last image is the Vellore town railway station that is just behind the Vellore fort and located in between Katpadi junction and Vellore Cantonment station. Cllick on the images to see the details.

Beautiful sunset of Vellore

Recently we were driving back from Bangalore to Vellore. It was about 6:00 PM when we entered the city limits of Vellore. When we looked to the northward, sky looked so beautiful, our friend couldn't resist but capture the image in her camera. It almost looks like the sky is on fire.

Do you like this picture? Click on it to enlarge to see the finer details. Drop me a line to let me know what you think?

Vellore Airport

I always believed that locating an airport in any community has a domino effect to affect its economy positively. Airport being on the top of the pyramid, there could be industries such as taxis, hotels, restaurants, roads, and landscaping etc could impact the local community significantly by providing employment and using local resources.

In 2006, I had learnt that there’s an airstrip in Vellore (Adbullahpuram to be exact) owned by the ‘Airports Authority of India’ (AAI) so I wrote an article in the Hindu district plus arguing the need for operationalizing the airport. Then I said that there are places like CMC and VIT to use the airport. Since then, a new attraction has come up in Vellore called “Golden Temple” bringing enormous number of tourists to Vellore.

With the political dimensions of India are completely (I mean 100%) in favor of Tamilnadu and Vellore, I personally feel that it is the time that Vellore citizens demand for an airport. There’s enough market in Vellore to use the airport.

Click on "Vellore Airport map" to open the link to see the location of Vellore Airport.  Use the zooming tools on the top left corner to see the details of the airport and the sorrounding roads.  

I took the image below of an aircraft hovering over Vellore. I read that Madras Flying Club currently uses the Vellore airport and I am presuming that this aircraft belongs to them.

Vellore map for you

Here is a Google map I designed for you for the city of Vellore. You can use the tools to enlarge to see the details. You'll find some surprises like "Vellore Airport" on this map. Let me know what you think of this??


View Larger Map

Katpadi (Vellore) railway station

Katpadi railway station is the nearest major railway station to reach the city of Vellore. You can pretty much reach Katpadi from any corner of India by train. Katpadi station is situated on Chennai-Bangalore broad gauge electrified track. It is a junction covering the directions of New Delhi, Chennai, Chittoor, Trivandrum and Vellore.

Do you need a place to stay in Vellore? Why stay anywhere when you can well afford to stay at number one choice place of CMC/ VIT and Golden temple visitors in Vellore? Click here for details

Katpadi railway station stretches from East to West with the station entrance facing the South. It has five platforms. Click on the images below to see the details. Katpadi railway station has CMC help desk, ATM, phone booths, separate computerized ticket reservation building, coach indicators on the platforms, food stalls and very nice over head announcement system in place. Most of the trains stop here so you should have no problem in reaching Vellore (Katpadi station) from anywhere in the country.

First image is the front of the railway station and the second one is showing the platforms

St. John's church in Vellore

St. John's church is one of the oldest structures of Vellore. It was built in 1846 and you must see to believe the strength of this structure today. If I understand it correctly, it was used by the Britishers but now it belongs to the Church of South India and it is actively being used.

St. John's church is located inside the Vellore Fort where there is a temple and a mosque. I thought that it is a strong secular symbol of the society.  Click on these images below to see the details.

Click here to visit the 'Home Stay' facilities (also called as 'Bed & Breakfast homes') in Vellore.

New facility at the Katpadi railway station

As you may have been hearing about all the profits that the Indian Railways is making, they are spending it too to improve the passengers’ amenities. If you visit Katpadi railway station now, you can see the cleaning operations are being outsourced.

Railway station is being cleaned with electric vacuum cleaners and there are more number of people to clean also. Station in general has a cleaner look but it still has a long way to go.

Last week, a new railway ticket reservation building has been opened. It looked nice from outside and inside too. It has 10 counters but when I went in there, only three counters are in open. In general I noticed that the crowd at the reservation counters has decreased dramatically because of increased outlets to book tickets including online reservation.

Here is the picture of a new ticket reservation complex located on the east side of the main building. Click on the image to enlarge to see the details.

Where did the school go?

It was Friday the 9th January at 14:40 hours (2:40 PM) and the Panchayat union school (public school) is supposed to be in full swing but school is nowhere to be found. It is completely hidden not because it is built in an obscure location (it is built on the main road) but someone decided that it is not important for this school to have the visibility.

School had six lorries parked right in front of it. Look carefully behind the second truck and you can see the school board in blue. Click on the image to enlarge it to see the details.



This is the entrance of the school in close up shot. Click on the image to enlarge it to see the details.

Birds eye view of the Vellore Fort

Here is an amazing image of the Velloe Fort that you may not have seen before. This image is made available by the Courtesy of Google Earth. Click on the image to enlarge it to see the details.