Vellore is a city and the administrative headquarters of Vellore District in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Located on the banks of Palar River in the north-eastern part of Tamil Nadu and has been ruled, at different times, by the Pallavas, Medieval Cholas, Later Cholas, Vijayanagar Empire, Rashtrakutas, Carnatic kingdom, and the British. Vellore has four zones (totally 60 wards) which cove
rs an area of 87.915 km2 and has a population of 423,425 based on 2001 census.[1][3] It is located about 145 kilometres (90 mi) west of the state capital Chennai and about 211 kilometres (131 mi) east of Karnataka capital Bengaluru. Vellore is part of Vellore (State Assembly Constituency) and Vellore (Lok Sabha constituency). Vellore is the base of two of India's top ten educational institutions, Christian Medical College & Hospital[4] and VIT University. It is also a major centre for medical tourism in India. Vellore region is the top exporter of finished leather goods in the country. Vellore leather accounts for more than 37% of the country's export of leather and leather-related products.[5] Vellore is also home to several manufacturing and automobile companies such as Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, MRF Limited, TVS-Brakes India, Tamil Nadu Industrial Explosives Limited, Greaves Cotton, ArcelorMittal Dhamm Processing, SAME Deutz-Fahr (Italy), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan) and KRAMSKI (Germany). Vellore Fort, Government Museum, Science Park, Vainu Bappu Observatory, Amirthi Zoological Park, Religious places such as Jalakandeswarar Temple, Srilakshmi Golden Temple, Big Mosque and St. John's Church and Yelagiri Hill station are the among top tourist attractions in and around Vellore. The Government of India has released next round of smart cities project list. The Tamil Nadu state district Vellore also got the place into the list of 27 cities in the prestigious project
