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Coimbatore

Coimbatore is the second largest metropolitan city and urban agglomeration after Chennai in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is one of the fastest growing tier-II cities in India and a major textile, industrial, commercial, educational, information technology, healthcare and manufacturing hub of Tamil Nadu.

Coimbatore has a pleasant, salubrious climate due to its proximity to thickly forested mountain ranges and the cool breeze blowing through the Palghat gap which makes the consistently hot temperatures pleasant.

With more than 25,000 small, medium and large industries, the city's primary industries are engineering and textiles. Coimbatore is called the "Manchester of South India" due to its extensive textile industry, fed by the surrounding cotton fields. The district also houses the country's largest amount of hosiery and poultry industries. The city has two special economic zones (SEZ), the Coimbatore Hi-Tech Infrastructure (CHIL) SEZ at Saravanampatti and the TIDEL Park near Peelamedu, and at least five more SEZs are in the pipeline. As of 2005, when Tirupur was a part of Coimbatore district, Coimbatore was the highest revenue earning district in Tamil Nadu. In 2010, Coimbatore ranked 15th in the list of most competitive (by business environment) Indian cities.

The city is served by the Coimbatore International Airport at Peelamedu 15 km (9.3 mi) from the city and an air-force base at Sulur 23 km (14 mi). The Coimbatore International Airport caters to domestic flights to major Indian cities like Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkatta and Mumbai and international flights to Sharjah and Singapore. Its runway is 9,760 feet (2,970 m) in length and is capable of handling wide-bodied and “fat-bellied” aircraft used for international flights.

Train service in Coimbatore started in 1832, upon construction of the Podanur – Madras line connecting Kerala and the west coast with the rest of India.[Broad gauge trains connect Coimbatore to all parts of India and Tamil Nadu. Meter gauge line existed between Podanur and Dindigul got closed on May 2009 and is under gauge conversion. The Coimbatore Junction is well connected to major Indian cities like Chennai, Bangalore, New Delhi, Mumbai, Howrah, Trivandrum, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Rajkot, Indore, Ahmedabad, Jammu, Kanpur, Tirunelveli and Patna. It is second highest revenue yielding station in the Southern Railway division of Indian Railways. The Coimbatore Junction comes under the Jurisdiction of the Salem Division and contributes 43.5% of its divisional income. This is the second largest income generating station in Southern Railway after Chennai Coimbatore North Junction is another important railway junction in the city apart from Coimbatore Junction and Podanur Junction. The other stations include Peelamedu, Singanallur, Irugur, Perianaikanpalayam, Madukkarai, Somanur and Sulur.

There are six major arterial roads in the city: Avinashi Road, Trichy Road, Sathyamangalam Road, Mettupalayam Road, Palakkad Road and Pollachi Road. There are three National Highways passing through the city:

•NH-47 – Salem – Coimbatore -Kanyakumari (via Palakkad, Thrissur, Kochi, Alappuzha, Kollam, Trivandrum)

•NH-67 – Nagapattinam - Coimbatore - Gundlupet (via Thanjavur, Tiruchirapalli, Karur, Ooty)

•NH 209- Dindigal - Coimbatore - Bangalore (via Palani, Pollachi, Sathyamangalam, Chamrajnagar, Kollegal)

Apart from state and National Highways, the city corporation maintains a 635.32 kilometres (394.77 miles) long road network.[32] Coimbatore has several major bus stations. The town buses (intra-city) operate from the Town Bus Stand in Gandhipuram to other bus stations across the city. Inter-city buses that connect Coimbatore operate from five different bus stands:

Gandhipuram Bus station for buses going to East and North East to Erode, Gobichettipalayam, Sathyamangalam, Tirupur, Salem (and surrounding areas)

SETC Bus Station at Gandhipuram for Express buses to Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pondicherry, Tirupati

Singanallur Bus station for buses to Madurai, Trichy, Tirunelveli (and surrounding areas)

Ukkadam Bus station for buses to Palakkad, Palani, Pollachi, Udumalpet (and surrounding areas)

Mettupalayam Road Bus station for buses going toward Mettupalayam, Ooty, Mysooru. Apart from these the Omni Bus Stand in Sathy Road, Gandhipuram caters to private bus operators.

Town bus services serve most parts of the city, as well as other towns and villages in the district. Buses also connect the district with all major towns in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh.

Coimbatore is an educational hub of south India. As of 2010, the Coimbatore district is home to 7 universities, 78 engineering colleges, 3 medical colleges, 35 polytechnics Colleges and more than 150 Arts and Science Colleges and a large number of schools. The city has reputed universities like Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (est. 1971), Bharathiar University (1982) and Anna University Coimbatore (2007). The city also houses research institutes like Central Institute for Cotton Research, Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Institute for Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding, Indian Council for Forestry Research and Education and Tamil Nadu Institute of Urban Studies.

There are nearly 750 hospitals in and around Coimbatore with a capacity of 5000 beds. The first health care centre in the city was started in 1909. In 1969, it was upgraded to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH). It is a government run hospital with a bed strength of 1020 and provides free health care. Including the CMCH, corporation maintains 16 dispensaries and 2 maternity homes. The city also has many large multi-facility private hospitals like the PSG Hospitals, Kovai Medical Center and Hospital (KMCH), KG Hospital, Coimbatore Kidney Centre, G. Kuppuswamy Naidu Memorial Hospital(GKNM), Sri Ramakrishna Hospital, Sheela Hospital, Kongunadu Hospital, Gem Hospital, Ganga Hospital, Aravind Eye Hospital, Sankara Netralaya, Lotus Eye Hospital, Ashwin hospital, Vikram ENT hospital, Sheela Hospital,Coimbatore Cancer Foundation, G. P. Hospital, Diabetes Care and Research Centre. The city is also a major centre for medical tourism. The city remains the preferred healthcare destination for people from nearby districts and also from the neighbouring state of Kerala.

Coimbatore also houses a number of museums and art galleries like G.D. Naidu Museum & Industrial Exhibition, H A Gass Forest Museum, Government Museum, Kadhi Gandhi Gallery and Kasthuri Srinivasan Art Gallery and Textile Museum. A science park and a planetarium is being built near Codissia trade fair complex and will be inaugurated by May 2012.

There are several amusement parks in and around the city namely, Black Thunder water theme park near Mettupalayam, Kovai Kondattam amusement park at Perur and Maharaja Theme Park at Nillambur. 

Since the 1980s, the city has had a few small shopping complexes. Lately, a few large malls have come up including Brookefields Mall and Fun Republic Mall. The city also has a number of parks including VOC park, the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University park, Race Course children's park, Bharathi park in Saibaba Colony and many more parks. Coimbatore Zoo houses a number of animals and birds and is located near VOC park. Singanallur and sulur lake is a popular tourist place and bird watcher destination. Though there are a lot of entertainment centres mushrooming in the city, visiting the cinema still remains the city's most popular recreational activity.