Travel Guide Vijayawada

population: 1,450,000. Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh's second-largest city, lies on the banks of the Krishna River and is bounded by the Indrakiladri Hills to the west and the Budameru River to the north. The town is part of the Krishna district. The name Vijayawada comes from " vijaya ", victory.Vijayawada is the main rail hub on the east coast, from Kolkata to Chennai. Some 265 km east of Hyderabad, it's a major industrial center and a fairly hectic city. And it is, in almost every respect, the center of Andhra. Few travellers stop here, although Vijayawada is a convenient base for visiting the ancient Buddhist sites at Amaravati. Vijayawada itself boasts a number of important Hindu temples, including the Kanaka Durga temple on Indrakiladri hill, and two 1,000-year-old Jain temples. Other sites include the Mogalrajapuram caves, Prakasam dam, Gunadala church, Kanaka Durga temple and Undavalliand Gandhi stupa. An important religious site in Vijayawada is the Hazrat Bal mosque, which houses idols of the lords Nataraja, Vinayaka and a few others. St. Mary's Church, on a small hill on the eastern side of the town at Gunadala, is also worth a visit. 8 km from Vijayawada, on the other side of the river, are the Hindu cave temples of Undavalil. Famous in the region, the Prakasam Dam, completed in 1957, is a modern 1,223.5 m long regulator and road bridge over the Krishna River. The city is also building Asia's largest bus station, with its modern architecture, planned during the NTR era. Vijayawada can thus be described as a center of commerce, pilgrimage and tourism...