GUDIYATHAM

Gudiyatham (Tamil: குடியாத்தம்) (also called Gudiyattam or Gudiyettram) is a municipality in Vellore district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is a town located 31 km from the city of Vellore.

Gudiyatham is about 172 km west of Chennai and 165 km southeast of Bangalore. The town is located near border of Andhra Pradesh state. Gudiyatham has more than 500 small villages around it.The recently announced NH 234 passes through it from Mangalore to Villupuram via Sira,Chintamani,V.Kota,Perambut,Gudiyattam,Katpadi,Vellore and Tiruvannamalai.

* Nearest Airport: Vellore and Chennai
* Nearest Seaport: Chennai
* Nearest Railway Stations : Gudiyatham and Ambur
* Nearest Railway Junction: Katpadi
Tourist attractions

Gangai amman Temple located in Gudiyattam, famous for its yearly carnival every year on May 14-15 (Tamil month - Vaigasi 1st) which attracts more than a million people from various places (http://dharsanam.blogspot.com/2010/04/gudiyatham-sri-gangai-amman.html). The Temple is famous for its fair. The temple is located on the bank of Goundanya Maha nadhi near the bus stand of Gudiyattam.

The Shiva temple Balasarthuleeswarar ( Baby-Tiger-Eswarar) in tamil translation Karupuleeswarar Aalayam in Nellorepet is more 1000 years old. It is famous for Car festival. The Shiva temple was abode for famous sage Goundanya Rishi and the river passing through the town is in his name "Goundanya Nadi". The temple has Simha tank.The temple is on Gudiyatham to Pernambut road.

The town is close to the recently famous religious tourism/place of worship spot called the GOLDEN TEMPLE at Sripuram.

Nearest dam: " Mordhana Dam", on the Gudiyatham - Palamaner road, around 8 km from Gudiyatham. A trip with family in the summer season to this place is enjoyable.By road: from Gudiyatham to Palamaner

The temple town of Tirumala - Tirupati, in the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP), is 100 km from Gudiyatham.

By road: From Chennai, one can come to Vellore, where frequent bus services are avaialble to Gudiyatham. From Tirupathi (AP), one can come to Chittoor (AP), where there are frequent bus services to Gudiyatham.

Commerce

The Republic of India's first national flag was woven here. Gudiyatham has a thriving small scale sector manufacturing safety matches, lungis, and beedis. The safety matches industry is next largest to Sivakasi. Beedis are exported to Pakistan and other parts of India.

The town has many movie halls and has in total, seven pettais or colonies.

Gudiyatham is famous for gold jewellery market. Being on the Katpadi - Jolarpettai railway line, it is much connected to Chennai and Bangalore. The handloom and powerloom lungies which are manufactured here are exported to many parts of India and Arab countries.

Other than these, there are two cotton mills running in Gudiyatham. One is Thirumagal Mills Limited and other one is Rajeshwari Mills Limited; both employ a considerable amount of employees. Cow and Ox market is held near Nellorepet every Tuesday and it has been so, for more than 100 years.

This small town, could evolve into a hub for biofuel production, particularly pungam oil, which is recognised as one of the oils ideal for blending with diesel.[2] Karanja oil, pungam oil, pungam oil cake, karanja oil cake, neem oil and neem cake manufactured, are being exported.

People

The major spoken language is Tamil. It has a fairly large Urdu and Telugu speaking population. It has reputed educational institutions like the Rajagopal Polytechnic college, which is one of the oldest and most reputed institutions in Tamil Nadu.

Majority of people are weavers, farmers, safety matches factory worker and beedis factory workers.

This town was one of the highest endemic areas for leprosy in India with more than 2000 new cases detected annually in the 1960s. Even now the region has not reached the World Health Organisation (WHO) elimination target of less than 1 leprosy patient per 10,000 population. This led to the establishment of "The Schieffelin Leprosy Research and Training Centre (SLRTC)- Karigiri" which had a leprosy control program in this area and actively recruited patients for treatment with multi-drug-therapy (MDT) and is still providing extra ordinary treatment to those suffering from leprosy, coming from the surrounding areas

Research Institute

The Sugarcane Research Station at Melalathur, Gudiyatham was started in 1935 under a scheme for sugarcane research of the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research. From 1981 onwards, it is under the jurisdiction of the "Tamil Nadu Agricultural University", Coimbatore. (TNAU)

Major Educational Institutions

Colleges

1. Government Thirumagal Mills College of Arts and Science (http://www.gtmcollege.com)
2. K.M.G.College of Arts and Science
3. K.M.G.College OF Education
4. C.K.S College of Education(http://www.ckseducation.org)

Technical Institutions

1. Gudiyattam Polytechnic College,Kakkathopu,gudiyattam
2. Rajagopal Polytechnic College (http://www.rajapoly.org)
3. Thiruvalluvar Teacher Training Institute
4. Industrial Training Institutes

Schools

1. Rajiv Gandhi Memorial Matriculation school
2. Saraswathi Vidhyalaya Matric Higher Secondary School, Sethuvandai
3. Ambalal Jain sri Saraswathi vidyalaya matriculation, Nellorepet.
4. Thiruvalluvar Higher Secondary School
5. National Higher Secondary School
6. Shiksha Kendra Ideal School, Pallikonda (10 km from Gudiyatham)
7. Al Ameen Matriculation and Primary School, Nadupet
8. Government Municipal Higher Secondary School (Opposite the Municipal Office)
9. Government Higher Secondary School, Nellorepet
10. Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Nadupet
11. SeventhDay Adventist Matric Higher Secondary School, Gudiyatham
12. Crescent Matriculation School, Sedukkarai
13. St Johns English School, Gudiyatham
14. Kalaivani Thuvakkap Palli, Dharnampet
15. Krishnaswamy Matriculation School, Sedukkarai
16. Immanuel English Nursery and Primary School, GPM st., Gudiyatham (Now defunct)
17. Vallallar Higher Secondary school, Nellorepet