Prakasam district is an administrative district in the Coastal Andhra region of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The headquarters of the district are located at Ongole. It is located on the western shore of Bay of Bengal and is bounded by Guntur district on the north, Kurnool district on the west, Kadapa and Nellore districts on the south. A part of north west region also borders the Mahabubnagar district of Telangana.[2] It is the 3rd largest district in the state with an area of 17,626 km2 (6,805 sq mi) and had a population of 3,392,764 as per 2011 census of India.
History
Prakasam district was originally constituted on 2 February 1970, carved out of Guntur, Nellore and Kurnool districts of Andhra Pradesh.[5] It was carved out of three taluks of Guntur District, i.e. Addanki, Chirala, and Ongole, four taluks of Nellore district, i.e. Kandukur, Kanigiri, Darsi and Podili and three taluks of Kurnool district i.e. Markapur, Yarragondapalem and Giddaluru. It is one of the nine districts in the Coastal Andhra region of Andhra Pradesh.
Prakasam District is a part of the Red Corridor.
Geography
Prakasam district occupies an area of 17,626 square kilometres (6,805 sq mi),[3] comparatively equivalent to Indonesia's Seram Island.[6]
The only Municipal Corporation in Prakasam is Ongole. Some of the main towns in Prakasam district are Singarayakonda, Addanki, Inkollu, Markapur, Yerragondapalem, Podili, Darsi, Donakonda, Chirala, Kandukur, Pamuru, Parchur, Giddaluru, Dornala, Cumbum, Kanigiri, Chimakurthy and Martur. Markapur is India's main slate manufacturing town where the historic temple of Lord Chennakesava is situated. Chimakurthi is world-renowned for its granite reserves. Dornala is also known as Diguva Srisailam, since it is very near the historic pilgrimage centre of Srisailam.
Cumbum lake also known as Gundalakamma lake built on Gundalakamma rivulet upon Nallamalai hills is one of the oldest man made lakes of Asia. The anicut was built by the Vijayanagar princess Varadharaj Amma. The lake in its present form is about 7 km long and on average, about 3.5 km wide As per the Imperial gazette of India at the turn of the 20th century the height of the dam was 57 feet (17 m) and the drainage area was 430 square miles (1,100 km2). The direct irrigation land was about 10,300 acres (42 km2) in all.[3] Cumbum lake is accessible both by the rail Guntur-Nandyal railway line and by road 108 km from Ongole.
Tourism
The Bhairava Kona cave temples are 8th century single stone rock-cut cave temples (similar to Mahabalipuram) for Lord Shiva.[11][12]
Administrative divisions
The district is divided into 3 revenue divisions, namely, Kandukur, Markapur and Ongole.[13] These are sub-divided into 56 mandals which consists of 1081 villages and 13 towns. These 13 towns (or urban settlements) in the district include, 1 municipal corporation, 3 municipalities and 4 nagar panchayats. Ongole is the only municipal corporation, Chirala, Kandukur, Markapur are the 3 municipalities and Addanki, Kanigiri, Chimakurthi, Giddalur are the nagar panchayats.[14] The 5 census towns in the district are Cumbum, Chirala (CT), Podili, Vetapalem, Pamur and Singarayakonda.
Education
The primary and secondary school education is imparted by government, aided and private schools, under the School Education Department of the state.[15][16] As per the school information report for the academic year 2015-16, there are a total of 4,311 schools. They include, 33 government, 2,949 mandal and zilla parishads, 1 residential, 1079 private, 10 model, 37 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV), 50 municipal and 152 other types of schools.[17] The total number of students enrolled in primary, upper primary and high schools of the district are 562,510.[18] The total number of students enrolled in primary, upper primary and high schools of the district are 461,065.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prakasam_district
