The Kochi metropolitan area or Kochi urban agglomeration is a

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...

centered around the city of

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

, in

Ernakulam district Ernakulam, ; ISO: ''Eṟaṇākuḷaṁ'', in Malayalam: എറണാകുളം), is one of the 14 districts in the Indian state of Kerala, that takes its name from the eponymous city division in Kochi. It is situated in the central part o ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. With a population of more than 2.1 million within an area of 440 km², it is the most populous metropolitan area in Kerala.

Municipalities and Panchayaths

The area constituted on the basis of census data 2011, consists of

Kochi Municipal Corporation The Kochi Municipal Corporation is the municipal corporation that manages the Indian city of Kochi (also known as Cochin) in the state of Kerala. Municipal Corporation mechanism in India was introduced during British Rule with formation of muni ...

, 9 municipalities, 15

Panchayaths The Panchayat raj is a political system, originating from the Indian subcontinent, found mainly in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. It is the oldest system of local government in the Indian subcontinent, and historical men ...

and parts of 4

. The 9 municipalities are

Aluva Aluva (; also known by its former name Alwaye) is a town in the Ernakulam District in Kerala, India. It is a part of the Kochi metropolitan area and is situated around from the city center on the banks of Periyar River. A major transpor ...

Thrippunithura Thrippunithura or Tripunithura (), is a prominent historical and residential region in the City of Kochi in Kerala, India. Located about 7 km (4 mi) from the city centre, Tripunithura was the capital of the erstwhile Kingdom of Cochin ...

Maradu Maradu is a fast developing region in the city of Kochi in Kerala, India. It is located at about from the city center. It was formed in May 1953 as a Grama Panchayath and was upgraded to the level of municipality in November 2010. National h ...

Thrikkakara Thrikkakkara is a region in the city of Kochi, as well as a municipality in Ernakulam District in the Indian state of Kerala, India. The municipality comprises 43 wards, including Marottichuvadu. It is especially notable for its significance in ...

Kalamassery Kalamassery () is a major industrial region in the city of Kochi in the state of Kerala, India. It houses companies like Apollo Tyres and HMT; IT/Electronics Parks like KINFRA Hi Tech Park, Startup Village, and Electronics City. Kalamassery ...

Eloor Eloor is a suburb of Kochi and a municipality in Paravur Taluk, Ernakulam District in the Indian state of Kerala, India. It is an industrial area situated around north of the city centre. It is an island of 14.21 km2 formed between two dis ...

North Paravur North Paravur. formerly known as Paravur or Parur, is a municipality and suburb in Ernakulam district in the Indian state of Kerala. It is a northern suburb of the city of Kochi and is situated around 20 km from the city centre. It is ...

Perumbavoor Perumbavoor (, Malayalam: പെരുമ്പാവൂർ) is a historic place located at Bank of Periyar (Poorna River) in Ernakulam District in the Indian state of Kerala. It is a part of the Kochi metropolitan area It lies in the n ...

and

Angamali Angamaly (''Aṅkamāli''), , Malayalam : അങ്കമാലി Situated about north of the city centre, the town lies at the intersection of Main Central Road (MC Road) and National Highway 544. MC Road, which starts from Thiruvananthapu ...

. The fifteen

consists of Chengamanad,

Nedumbassery Nedumbassery, , is a suburb of the city of Kochi in Kerala, India. Situated around northeast of the city centre, Nedumbassery is also an integral part of the Kochi Metropolitan Area. Location Nedumbassery lies between the two municipaliti ...

, Cheranelloor,

Varapuzha Varappuzha, , (also known by its former name Verapoly) is a northern suburb of the city of Kochi. It is a census town in Paravur Taluk, Ernakulam district in the Indian state of Kerala. Situated around 15 km (9 mi) from the city centr ...

Chennamangalam Chendamangalam (or Chennamangalam) is a small town and a panchayat in Paravur Taluk, Ernakulam district in the state of Kerala, India. Location It is about 23 km from Ernakulam. It has three rivers, seven inlets, hillocks and large e ...

, Kadamakkudy,

Mulavukad Mulavukad, also known locally as Bolgatty Island, is one of the islands that forms part of the city of Kochi in Kerala, India. It is situated in the Mulavukad Grama Panchayat. Vypin island and Vallarpadam island lie on its west side and Va ...

Kadungalloor Kadungalloor, , is a village situated near Aluva. The village belongs to the Paravur Taluk of the Ernakulam district in the Indian state of Kerala. The industrial estates of Muppathadam and Edayar are located in Kadungalloor. Demographics Ac ...

Alengad Alangad is a village located in Paravur Taluk of Ernakulam District in the Indian state of Kerala. It lies almost in the middle of North Paravur and Aluva. The Kochi city is 15 km away from Alangad. Etymology The name Alangad has been der ...

Chottanikkara Chottanikkara ( ml, ചോറ്റാനിക്കര) is a town and southern suburb of the city of Kochi, Kerala, India. In local administration, it is a panchayat which consists of Chottanikkara, Kanayannur, Eruvely, Kureekkad, Vattukkunnu ...

Choornikkara Choornikkara is a census town in Aluva in Ernakulam District in Kerala, India. Demographics India census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population ...

Edathala Edathala is a gram panchayat near Aluva town. It is also a village in Aluva taluk of Ernakulam district, in the state of Kerala, India. History About 300 years ago, Padamattam was the place where the Lord King of Edappally fought against Kalat ...

Kizhakkambalam Kizhakkambalam is an eastern suburb of the city of Kochi in Ernakulam district, Kerala, India. It is regarded as a model panchayat for its various development activities and is a part of the Kunnathunad tehsil of the Ernakulam district. Demog ...

, Kumbalam, Kottuvally and

Vypin Vypin (Malayalam: വൈപ്പിന്‍, Cochin Portuguese: Isla Santa) is one of the group of islands that form part of the city of Kochi (Cochin), in the Indian state of Kerala. Vypin forms a barrier island which lies between the Ar ...

Island. . The state government and the GCDA have plans to include Mala and

Kodungallur Kodungallur (; also Cranganore, Portuguese: Cranganor; formerly known as Mahodayapuram, Shingly, Vanchi, Muchiri, Muyirikkode, and Muziris) is a historically significant town situated on the banks of river Periyar on the Malabar Coast in Thr ...

in Thrissur district;

Piravom Piravom is a municipality in Ernakulam district and a suburb of Kochi in the Indian state of Kerala. It is located with in 31 km southeast of Kochi city center, at the boundary of the Ernakulam and Kottayam districts. Piravom is famous for ...

and

Kolenchery Kolenchery is a town and the easternmost suburb of the city of Kochi in Kerala, India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous c ...

;

Thalayolaparambu Thalayolaparambu is a town situated in Kottayam district in Kerala, India. Spanning over an area of 19.3 square kilometres with a population of 22,571 people, this mini-town is home to some of the well-known personalities such as the former Ch ...

and

Vaikom Vaikom, , is a municipal town and a capital town of Vaikom Taluk, situated in the northwest of Kottayam district in the state of Kerala, India. The town is also noted for its role in the Indian independence movement for being the venue of Vaikom ...

Kottayam Kottayam () is a municipal town in the Indian state of Kerala. Flanked by the Western Ghats on the east and the Vembanad Lake and paddy fields of Kuttanad on the west. It is the district headquarters of Kottayam district, located in south-we ...

; and

Cherthala Cherthala, , (formerly Shertalai, Shertallai or Shertallay) is a Municipal town and a Taluk located at National highway 66 in the district of Alappuzha, in the state of Kerala, India. Cherthala is the satellite town and industrial hub of Ala ...

in Alappuzha district within the Kochi metropolitan limits.

History

Kochi was the princely state under the

Kingdom of Kochi The Kingdom of Cochin, named after its capital in the city of Kochi (Cochin), was a kingdom in the central part of present-day Kerala state. It commenced at the early part of the 12th century and continued to rule until 1949, when monarchy wa ...

which came into existence in 1102, after the fall of the Kulasekhara empire. The princely state had the Kochi mainland as the capital. The state was ruled by

Cochin Royal Family The Kingdom of Cochin, named after its capital in the city of Kochi (Cochin), was a kingdom in the central part of present-day Kerala state. It commenced at the early part of the 12th century and continued to rule until 1949, when monarchy w ...

. On the earlier days, the kingdom of Kochi was always under the shadow of the attacks from Samoothirippadu (often anglicised as Zamorin), the ruler of Malabar the northern neighbour. From 1503 to 1663, Kochi was allied to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. Kochi hosted the grave of

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; ; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link E ...

, the first European explorer to set sail for India, who was buried at St. Francis Church until his remains were returned to Portugal in 1539. The Dutch, who had allied with the

Zamorins The Samoothiri (Anglicised as Zamorin; Malayalam: , Arabic: ''Sāmuri'', Portuguese: ''Samorim'', Dutch: ''Samorijn'', Chinese: ''Shamitihsi''Ma Huan's Ying-yai Sheng-lan: 'The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores' 433 Translated and Edited b ...

in order to conquer Kochi, later became an ally of Kochi. In the battle of Ambalapuzha (3 January 1754), the Dutch allied Kochi was defeated by

Marthanda Varma Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma (Malayalam: ) was the founding monarch of the southern Indian Kingdom of Travancore (previously Venadu) from 1729 until his death in 1758. He was succeeded by Rama Varma ("Dharma Raja") (1758–98).Subrahmany ...

Travancore The Kingdom of Travancore ( /ˈtrævənkɔːr/), also known as the Kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor, was an Indian kingdom from c. 1729 until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvananthapuram. At ...

(who was allied with

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

) after he defeated the Dutch in the

Battle of Colachel The Battle of Colachel (or The Battle of Kulachal) was fought on between the Indian kingdom of Travancore and the Dutch East India Company. During the Travancore-Dutch War, King Marthanda Varma's (1729–1758) forces defeated the Dutch East ...

-1741. In 1757 AD, a treaty was concluded between Travancore and Cochin, ensuring peace and stability on the Southern border. By 1773, the Mysore King

Hyder Ali Hyder Ali ( حیدر علی, ''Haidarālī''; 1720 – 7 December 1782) was the Sultan and ''de facto'' ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India. Born as Hyder Ali, he distinguished himself as a soldier, eventually drawing the att ...

extended his conquest in the

Malabar region The Malabar Coast is the southwestern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Geographically, it comprises the wettest regions of southern India, as the Western Ghats intercept the moisture-laden monsoon rains, especially on their westward-facing m ...

to Kochi, forcing it to become a tributary of Mysore. The hereditary Prime Ministership of Kochi held by the

Paliath Achan Paliath Achan or Paliyath Achan is the name given to the oldest male member of the Paliam royal family, a Nair/ Menon chieftain family from the Indian state of Kerala who were elevated to the status of royalty by the Rajah of Kingdom of Cochin ( ...

s came to an end during this period. The Dutch, who feared an outbreak of war on the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...

signed a treaty with the United Kingdom, had left South India by then. This was in exchange for the island of Bangka as per the treaty. Kochi was thus under the British rule, till

gained independence in 1947. In 1949, Travancore-Cochin state came into being with the merger of Cochin and

. After the King of Kochi refused to take any official position, The King of Travancore was made the

Rajpramukh Rajpramukh was an administrative title in India which existed from India's independence in 1947 until 1956. Rajpramukhs were the appointed governors of certain Indian provinces and states. Background The British Indian Empire, which includ ...

of the Travancore-Cochin Union from 1949 to 1956. Travancore-Cochin, was in turn merged with the

Malabar district Malabar District, also known as Malayalam District, was an administrative district on the southwestern Malabar Coast of Bombay Presidency (1792-1800) and Madras Presidency (1800-1947) in British India, and independent India's Madras State (19 ...

of the

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

State. Finally, the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

States Reorganisation Act The States Reorganisation act, 1956 was a major reform of the boundaries of India's States and territories of India, states and territories, organising them along linguistic lines. Although additional changes to India's state boundaries have b ...

(1956) inaugurated a new state Kerala; incorporating Travancore-Cochin (excluding the four southern Taluks which were merged with

Madras State Madras State was a state of India during the mid-20th century. At the time of its formation in 1950, it included the whole of present-day Tamil Nadu (except Kanyakumari district), Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, the Malabar region of North and c ...

), Malabar District, and the

taluk A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

Kasargod Kasaragod () is a municipal town and administrative headquarters of Kasaragod district in the state of Kerala, India. Established in 1966, Kasaragod was the first municipal town in the district. It is the northernmost district of Kerala and ...

South Kanara South Canara was a district of the Madras Presidency of British India, located at . It comprised the towns of Kassergode and Udipi and adjacent villages, with the capital in Mangalore city. South Canara was one of the most heterogeneous areas o ...

. The Kochi urban agglomeration was defined in 1998, with the

corporation of Cochin The Kochi Municipal Corporation is the municipal corporation that manages the Indian city of Kochi (also known as Cochin) in the state of Kerala. Municipal Corporation mechanism in India was introduced during British Rule with formation of muni ...

, municipalities of

Angamaly Angamaly (''Aṅkamāli''), , Malayalam : അങ്കമാലി Situated about north of the city centre, the town lies at the intersection of Main Central Road (MC Road) and National Highway 544. MC Road, which starts from Thiruvanantha ...

, and 11 adjoining villages.

Economy

Kochi is known as the financial and economic capital of Kerala. The economic growth gathered momentum after

economic reforms in India The economic liberalisation in India refers to the opening of the country's economy to the world with the goal of making the economy more market and service-oriented, thus expanding the role of private and foreign investment. Indian economi ...

introduced by the

central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or dele ...

in the mid-1990s. Since 2000, the

service sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...

has energized the economy. Over the years, the city has witnessed rapid commercialisation, and has today grown into the commercial capital of Kerala.Statistics of Ernakulam in 2001
Official site of Government of Kerala

References

External links

Government of Kerala – Ernakulam Portal

Government of India – Ernakulam Portal
{{coord missing, Kerala Populated coastal places in India Cities and towns in Ernakulam district Metropolitan areas of India