Tanuku is a town in West Godavari district of the

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

. It is the mandal headquarters of

Tanuku mandal Tanuku mandal is one of the 48 mandals in West Godavari district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is under the administration of Kovvur revenue division and the headquarters are located at Tanuku. The mandal is bounded by Nallajerla ...

Narasapuram revenue division Narasapuram revenue division (or Narasapuram division) is an administrative division in the West Godavari district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is one of the 2 revenue divisions in the district which consists of 10 mandals under it ...

. Tanuku is the fourth largest city in the West Godavari district after

Bhimavaram Bhimavaram is a city and headquarters of West Godavari district of the Andhra Pradesh state of India. It is the administrative headquarters of Bhimavaram mandal in Bhimavaram revenue division. It is a part of Bhimavaram Urban Development Aut ...

Tadepalligudem Tadepalligudem is a city in West Godavari district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a Selection Grade municipality and the mandal headquarters of Tadepalligudem mandal in Bhimavaram revenue division. Tadepalligudem is the second ...

and

Palakollu Palakollu is a city and the administrative headquarters of Palakollu Mandal in Narasapuram revenue division in West Godavari district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Palakollu is situated in Coastal Andhra region of the state. It occup ...

in terms of population.

History

In the ancient period, the town was known as ''Tarakapuri'', the capital of Asura King Tarakasura.

Geography

Tanuku is a located at . It has a

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

climate and an annual rainfall of . The

Gosthani River The Gosthani rises in the Ananthagiri Hills of the Eastern Ghats and flows through the Borra Caves which lie near its source. It is the largest river flowing through Visakhapatnam city. It flows for 120 km before joining the Bay of Bengal ...

flows through the town.

Demographics

census of India, the town had a population 90,430.

Civic administration and politics

Tanuku Municipality Tanuku Municipality is the local self government in Tanuku, a Town in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is classified as a ''first grade municipality''. History ''Mullapudi Harischandra Prasad'' was the first chairman of Tanuku. After S ...

was constituted in 1979 as a ''second grade municipality''. It was upgraded to ''first grade'' in 2002 and has 34 election wards. Its jurisdiction is spread over an area of . The present municipal chairman is SS REDDY GARU. and the municipal commissioner is M. Sambasivarao. Tanuku assembly constituency represents

Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly or Andhra Pradesh Śāsana Sabha is the lower house of the Andhra Pradesh Legislature. The Legislative Assembly consists of 175 members which are elected by adult universal suffrage under the first-p ...

, which is one of the segment of Narasapuram Lok Sabha constituency, representing the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

Economy

Andhra Sugars Limited supplies liquid hydrogen to the

ISRO The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman ...

, for using it as a rocket propellant in satellite launch vehicles. The other byproducts are also used in liquor, paper and power industries.

Culture

Tanuku is the birthplace of Adikavi Nannaya, regarded as the first poet of

Telugu language Telugu (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken by Telugu people predominantly living in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it is also the official language. It is the most widely spoken member of the Dravidian language fami ...

. He is credited with translation of the ''

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...

'' from

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

. Javvadi Yamini Narasambika in dance, AJS Ramareddy in literature and poetry and Dampuri Narayanarao in folk arts have won the Ugadi Purasakarams, a cultural event organized on April 8, 2016 at YMHA hall,

Eluru Eluru is a city and the district headquarters of Eluru district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is one of the 14 municipal corporations in the state and the mandal headquarters of Eluru mandal in the Eluru revenue division. The city ...

. The Youth Cultural Celebrations is one such example of promoting cultural activities.

Transport

The town has a total road length of . The

Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) is the state-owned road transport corporation in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Its headquarters is located at NTR Administrative Block of RTC House in Pandit Nehru bus station of V ...

operates bus services from Tanuku bus station.

Tanuku railway station Tanuku railway station (station code: TNKU), provides rail connectivity to the town of Tanuku in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. It is administered under Vijayawada railway division of South Coast Railway Zone South Coast Railway ...

is categorized as a ''Non-Suburban Grade-5 (NSG-5)'' station in the

Vijayawada railway division Vijayawada railway division (formerly: Bezawada railway division) is one of the three railway divisions under South Coast Railways of the Indian Railways. The headquarters of the division are located at Vijayawada. History It was formed as ...

Rajahmundry Airport Rajahmundry Airport is a domestic airport located at Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh, India. It is located on National Highway 516E. During 1985–1994, it was used by Vayudoot. It is heavily used by the helicopters of Oil and Natural Gas Corpo ...

is situated about from the town.

Education

The primary and secondary school education is imparted by government, aided and private schools, under the School Education Department of the state. The medium of instruction followed by different schools are English, Telugu. Higher education institutions include the SMVM Polytechnic College which provides technical courses. SKSD Mahila Kalasala which offers under graduate and post graduate courses.

Sports

Chitturi Subba Rao – Gopichand Badminton Academy is the badminton academy under the Chitturi Subba Rao Trust for training the under 13 badminton players. The academy hosted the COSCO A.P. State Open Mini Badminton Championship 2016. The Tanuku Football Club is one of the teams in the Football League of West Godavari tournament, promoting the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

. Sports personalities from the city include Rella Sanjeeva Rao, an under-14

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

player, top ranker for U-13 level, and gold medalist at national level championship.

References

{{Authority control Cities and towns in West Godavari district Mandal headquarters in West Godavari district