Kakinada

Kakinada, known for it's port, beach, Hope Island, the famous Kaja, one of the larger cities in Andhra Pradesh, a commercial and educational center too.

One of the major ports in the British Raj, it was the starting point of the Buckingham Canal that went all the way up to Chennai, with goods transported by boats on rivers. Coringa was where the older port was located, now famous for it's mangrove forests. Many natives migrated from here to South East Asia, during the British era, to work as laborers. Most of them have settled there and are called as Coringas.

The city’s older name was Kakinandiwada, during British times it was referred to as Cocanada, later reverted to Kakinada after independence. There are many theories for the origin of the name.

One theory states that Rama shot and injured Kakasura, here hence the name. While another states that it was named so after an Ikshavaku ruler Kaka who built this settlement. While some say it was Kakulawada, due to large number of crows( Kaki is Telugu for crow).

During the British rule,Kakinada was the site of a large shipbuilding yard, at what is now Hope Island,which was destroyed due to a storm in 1787, that followed by the siliting of the Coringa estuary later saw the city lose it's prominence as a port. During British rule, Rajahmundry was the Head Quarters of the unified Godavari district. However after it was split into two parts in 1925, Kakinada became the HQ of East Godavari, while Eluru became the the HQ of West Godavari.

The city is one of Andhra Pradesh's main educational centers, JNTU is located here , while Rangaraya Medical College is among the top ones in the state. The PR Govt College is one of the older colleges in state.

Metroman Sreedharan incidentally is an alumnus of the JNTU College of Engineering here. And the city has quite a long list of famous persons who hailed from here in different walks of life.

One of the well known temples in Kakinada is the Bhavanarayana Swamy temple at Sarpavaram, one of the five such temples in AP, along with those at Bapatla, Ponnur,Bhavadevarapalli and Narasaraopet.

As per Sthala Purana when Garuda was killing the Nagas, the 1000 sons of Kadru, one of them Ananta did penance to Vishnu to save himself. Vishnu pleased with his devotion, blessed him, and asked him to be the bed for him. Hence the place is called Sarpavaram.

The other place worth visiting near Kakinada is the Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary, the 2nd largest stretch of mangrove forests in India, home to many rare bird species like the white backed vulture.

Coringa Sanctuary is located on the estuary where the Gautami, one of the tributaries of Godavari merges with the sea, known for it's rich mangrove forests, birds, and fauna like otter, fishing cat. It's around 8 km from the city.

Uppada Beach is another worth visiting place near Kakinada, with it's rocky coastline, the road flanked by the sea on one side, and lush green paddy fields on another side. And look out for the high tides here.

Kakinada Kaja, known for it's cylindrical shape, and rather sticky nature. One of the famous Telugu sweets along with the Pootharekulu, Bandar Laddu, it was actually made by Kotayya, who started a sweet shop here in 1891. While there are many sweet shops that sell the Kakinada Kaja, Kotaiah's is still the most prominent of all. And it has become a brand by itself. The Kakinada Kaja is different from the Tapeswaram Kaja, while the former is cylindrical and more sticky, the latter is ribbon shaped, tends to be more crisper. And the former is called as Gottam Kaja, due to it's shape, while the latter is called as Madatha Kaja, due to folds.

Kakinada's other iconic brand is Subbayya Gari Hotel, that offers a typical Telugu vegeterian Thali in a traditional manner. Especially the Butta Bhojanam, where rice is served in a basket.

Hope Island located off Kakinada Coast, serves as a natural barrier for the city from storms, and is a popular tourist attraction. The Indian navy uses this island for marine exercises, beaching practice. It was one of the early planned cities in India, with residential neighborhooods neatly laid out, segregated from commercial areas. The IST line passes through this city in the South.

Though known more as a Pensioners Paradise, with it's rather leisurely lifestyle, Kakinada has emerged as a major industrial center. The deep water port here is the first to be built in a public-private partnership model and is one of the busier ones.

Apart from the port Kakinada is home to many Agro-product industries, edible oil refineries, power plants belonging to Reliance,GVK group, and is base for ONGC's Eastern operations too.

Many famous people hailed from Kakinada. Veteran actors Rao Gopal Rao, Suryakantham, Anjali Devi, Relangi, singer P.B.Srinivas, Chaganti Koteswara Rao known for his pravachanas, Veena Chitti Babu, cricketer Hanuma Vihari, music director Adinarayana Rao.

It's rather picturesque location with the Beach, Uppada, the lush green paddy fields nearby has made Kakinada favorite location for many Telugu movie makers. Some of the films shot here include Gita Govindam, Uppena, Jayyamu Nishchayammura, Dear Comrade in recent times.