Bapatla

Bapatla
—  town  —
Bapatla Location of Bapatla in Andhra Pradesh
Coordinates	15°53′20″N 80°28′12″E
Country	India
State	Andhra Pradesh
District(s)	Guntur
Population	68,103 (2001)
Time zone	IST (UTC+05:30)
Area • Elevation	• 5 metres (16 ft)

Bapatla, formerly known as Bhavapuri, is a town and mandal of Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh, India. It is located 40 miles (64 km) south of Guntur City on the East Coast.

Educational Institutions

Besides all the schools and colleges in Bapatla, it is very well known for Bapatla Engineering College (also called BEC) and Bapatla Agricultural College.

BEC is located 4 km South West to Bapatla on the way to Chirala and is hosting wide range of courses. BEC is very well known for its excellence in procuring a major number of GATE ranks every year.

Bapatla Agricultural College is located right in the center of the town hosting various courses in the Agricultural Engineering. It is been told that the BPT Grade Rice was invented in this college.

Hindu Temples

Bhavannarayana Swamy Temple, Located in the heart of the town, is one of the oldest temples of Andhra Pradesh. It was constructed by the great king Kimikantha Chola in 1465 and was renovated by Raja (King) Vasireddi Venkatadrinaidu of Amaravathi kingdom in 1856. This temple has been preserved for years by the Archaeological department of India. On October 23, 2011, this temple's Galigopuram (main entrance) has been collapsed, allegedly because of the negligence of Archaeological department. The galigopuram stood at a 75-feet tower close to a five-storied building. This incident made it to the big news all over Andhra Pradesh.

Sai Baba Temple, located at the outskirts of the town, is known for god Sai Baba. People visit this temple on Thursdays to attend the Aarti to baba.

Army Air Base

The Indian Air Force has an emergency air-base located in a village near to Bapatla, called Suryalanka. The Air-base is located on the shore of the ocean (Bay of bengal) and so, it is often used to do the missile launch test in to the Ocean.

Transportation

• Bapatla railway station has two main tracks and is located on the main lane that connects Vijayawada and Chennai. Majority of trains that pass by, has a stop at Bapatla and so, this provides a major means of transport to the students (mainly engineering students) that travel from the near by cities. Indian Air Force makes use of this station, for their Air-base logistics.

• The main bus station in Bapatla operates buses of different kinds round the clock to the major cities like Guntur, Vijayawada, Repalle and Chirala.

• Auto-Rickshaw's are also the available means of transport in town. Students that travel to Agricultural college or Engineering collect use these a lot, because of their frequency.

Notable Places

• The center of the town is called Gadiyara Stambam center, which has an old clock tower located at the cross road junction of two main roads of Bapatla. This is well known for all the commercial shops and local Businesses.
• Pata Bus Stand (old bus stand) is another major junction, which acts as a backup Bus station for the passengers that are travelling to Guntur, Chirala and Repalle.

Assembly constituency

Bapatla is an assembly constituency in Andhra Pradesh.

List of elected members:

• 1951 – Vemmulapalli Srikrishna
• 1955 – Manthena Venkata Raju
• 1962 – Kommineni Venkateswara Rao
• 1967, 1972 and 1978 – Kona Prabhakara Rao
• 1983 – C.V.Ramaraju
• 1985 – Ummareddy Venkateswarlu
• 1989 – Chirala Govardhana Reddy
• 1994 – Muppalaneni Seshagiri Rao
• 1999 – Manthena Anantha Varma
• 2004 – Gade Venkata Reddy
• 2009 – Gade Venkata Reddy