Kakinada

A business centre and Head Quarters of East Godavari district of Andhrapradesh - It is a costal town located at East coast. 

Going back to the history, Kakinada was considered as 2nd Madras. The original name of this place was Kakanandivada named by the king of Ikshavaku, Kaka. During 17th century, some part of the city was occupied by the Dutch and named this place as Co-Canada. The name was then changed to Kakinada after the independence during 1947.

Importance of Kakinada

Kakinada has also been described in Bhima Khandam as the place with clustered tanks and temples. The temple street (Jawahar) has many temples and there are many tanks exist till now. Maharshi Bulusu Sambamurthy is a well known personality who emerged from kakinada struggled during Indian freedom movement. Present Gandhi Nagar Park area was used by all India Congress during 1923 for their work. Japanese targetted this place during 2nd world war for bombing. It has got heritage for the buildings like P.R.College, Om Tatsat is a building of Brahma Samaj, the Orphanage building, Main office building of State Bank of India. The cultural heritage lies in the Century old Saraswati Gana Sabha, Sangeeta Vidwat Sabha and others. Many famous cine artists are said to have been produced by Young men's happy club and Andhra Seva Sangam belonging to this area. 

This place is a fast developing industrial area and has got industries in the area of Auto mobiles, Fertilizers, petro chemicals and others. Kakinada has many famous educational institutions constituting Medicine, Engineering, Polytechnic, degree colleges and Law. There is a major natural port in Kakinada which is protected (against tides) by 18Kms long Hope island.

Visiting places

Nearer to Kakinada, Draksharama (Pancharama Kshetra) and Kotipalli are located. These places are Piligrim centres for Hindus and are situtated at a distance of 25Kms (normal fare by taxi include INR 700 to INR 800). Bheemeswaralayam at Draksharama is the Pancharamas with Manikyamba Shakti Peetam (one of the 18 Shakti Peetams in India). Dhakshayagna Vatika is the place situated here where Dhaksha performed the Yagna. In Kotipalli the Sivalingam is installed by God Chandra (Moon) and the Vishnu temple is nearby which is very rare having Shiva and Vishnu temples at one place. 

Samalkot is one more important town which is just 12 Kms from Kakinada. One more Pancharama temple Kumararama Bheemeswara alayam is located at Samalkot. This temple was constructed during 9th Century by Chanukya kings.

The famous Padagaya Kshetram is located at Pithapuram, just 20Kms from Kakinada. Uma kukkuteswara swamy temple, Kunti Madhava swamy temple, Datta Peetam of Sri Ganapathi Sachitananda swamy and Puruhootika Devi temples are situated at Pithapuram. Puruhootika Devi is another Shakti peetam. 

Bhavanarayana Swamy temple is located at Sarpavaram which is just 8 Kms from Kakinada. The water tank opposite to this temple is called Narada Gundam where Narada got rid off the Vishnu Maya of Sansarika Jeevitam by taking bath here. 

Sea shore and port are just 8Kms from the city. One can see fishing Harbour berths and Hope island in this place.