Puttaparthi

Puttaparthi పుట్టపర్తి
Village
Prashanti Nilayam and surrounding area
Puttaparthi
Coordinates:
Country	India
State	Andhra Pradesh
District	Anantapur
Elevation	475 m (1,558 ft)
Population (2011)[1]
• Total	15,088
Languages
• Official	Telugu
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
PIN	515 xxx
Telephone code	91-8555
Vehicle registration	AP–02
Website	Puttaparthi website

Puttaparthi is a town in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh, India. The original name of Puttaparthi was Gollapalli. The place is popularly known by the world at large as the birthplace of Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

Demographics

The common languages spoken in Puttaparthi are Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, English and Hindi.^[2]

Climate

The climate is generally hot and dry throughout the year,^[2] summer temperatures ranging from 34 °C-42 °C, (93F-108F) and winter 22 °C-27 °C (71F-80F).^[3] The hotter months are from March until July and the milder months are from November until January.^[2]

"The southwest monsoons play a major role in determining the climate. The northeast monsoons are responsible for about one-third of the total rainfall. Some rainfall may be expected during the months of July and August and again from October to December."^[3]

Puttaparthi is 475 meters (1558 feet) above sea level.^[4]

Transportation

Entrance to Puttaparthi

Road

Puttaparthi is well connected by road to all parts of Anantapur district, the district headquarters Anantapur (84 kilometres (52 mi)), the state capital Hyderabad, Telangana (441 kilometres (274 mi)), Bangalore (154 kilometres (96 mi)) and Chennai (375 kilometres (233 mi)), by state-run APSRTC buses. KSRTC buses also ply from Bangalore.

Rail

Platform No.1 of Prashanti Nilayam Railway Station

Puttaparthi has a railway station named as Sri Satya Sai Prasanthi Nilayam which started functioning from 23 November 2000, which was Baba's 75th birth anniversary. It is about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from the ashram. This station falls under the Bangalore Division of the South Western Railway and lies on the Bangalore-Guntakal railway line. It is easy to reach the town from the railway station in 20-25 mins, through various modes of transport like cabs, autorickshaws and APSRTC buses. The town is connected directly by train to Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Kolkata.^[5]

Air

Puttaparthi has an airport which is 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from the ashram.^[6] It is owned by the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust and is spread over 450 acres (1.8 km²) of land, housing a runway that is 2,230 metres long.^[7] The airport is closed to normal domestic flights, though until 2005, it was served by the erstwhile Indian Airlines with flights from Mumbai and Chennai.^[8]

The nearest functional airport is the Kempegowda International Airport at Devanahalli, a suburb of Bangalore which is about 119 kilometres (74 mi) from Puttaparthi.

Other attractions

Entrance to Prashanti Nilayam ashram from main road

Apart from the main Ashram, Puttaparthi has other places of interest like a [9]

Business decline

The main attraction at Puttaparthi remained Sathya Sai Baba who gave darshan to his devotees. The samadhi of the guru on 24 April 2011 led to decline of business.^[10]

Sports

Sri Sathya Sai International Centre for Sports and Sri Sathya Sai Hill View Stadium are two sporting facilities in Puttaparthi. Hill View Stadium was established in 1997 and mainly used cricket and capacity of 25,000. International Centre for Sports was established in 2006 with indoor facilities for Basket ball, Volley ball, Tennis, Squash, Table tennis, Badminton, Gymnastics and Yoga/Aerobics. ^[11]

Gallery

References

External links

• Tours & Travels
• Puttaparthi
• Information about Puttaparthi