Rajahmundry

Rajahmundry: railway bridges over the Godavari River

Rajahmundry, city, eastern Andhra Pradesh state, southern India. It lies at the head of the Godavari River delta, about 30 miles (50 km) west of Kakinada.

In 1449 Rajahmundry was captured by Kapileshvara, the Orissa ruler. In 1757 it was ceded to the British. A short distance downstream, at Dowalaiswaram, the British civil engineer Sir Arthur Joseph Cotton built a dam across the Godavari in the mid-19th century, the first major irrigation project on that river. At the turn of the 20th century, the first of three railway bridges over the Godavari was built at Rajahmundry and had 56 spans and an overall length of 9,678 feet (2,950 metres). The second bridge, for both road and rail traffic, opened in the early 1970s. The third structure, a rail bridge completed in 1997, was built adjacent to the first bridge and replaced the old span. A fourth bridge, for road traffic only, opened in 2015.

The city is a major regional transportation hub. It is also a centre for rice, salt, and lumber, the latter of which is floated down from the forested hills to the north. Manufacturing is important, and the city has a paper mill and a crucible factory. Several colleges, affiliated with Andhra University in Vizianagaram, and the Central Tobacco Research Institute are located there. Pop. (2001) city, 315,251; urban agglom., 413,616; (2011) city, 341,831; urban agglom., 476,873.