Andhra Pradesh, State of India, located in the southeastern part of the subcontinent. It is bordered by the Indian states of Tamil Nadu to the south, Karnataka to the southwest and west, Telangana to the northwest and north, and Odisha to the northeast. Its eastern boundary is a 600 mile (970 km) coastline along the Bay of Bengal. Telangana was a region within Andhra Pradesh for nearly six decades, but in 2014 it split off to form a separate state. The capital of both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is Hyderabad, in the west of Telangana. Visakhapatnam, also spelled Vishakhapatnam, also called Vizag, city and port, northeastern state of Andhra Pradesh, southern India. It is located on a small shore of the Bay of Bengal about 610 km northeast of Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu. Visakhapatnam is an important commercial and administrative center with road, rail and air connections. The harbor is the only protected harbor on the Coromandel coast, and the city is the headquarters of the Eastern Naval Command of the Indian Navy.
The natural harbor of Visakhapatnam is formed by two promontories, the southern part of which is separated from the city by a small river. Improvements to the port have made it possible to receive several large ships at the same time. The city is also an important shipbuilding center; the first steamboat to be built in India was launched at Visakhapatnam harbor in 1948. Manganese, oilseeds, and iron ore are exported to Visakhapatnam, and the city has an oil refinery, steel mill and industrial complexes for petrochemical and fertilizer production. , sugar and burlap. A medical university and a medical museum are in the city. A submarine museum is on Ramakrishna Beach. The suburb of Waltair, on the north side of the bay, is the location of Andhra University (founded 1926). The area around the suburbs is dominated to the west by the well-wooded Eastern Ghats and further to the east is drained by numerous rivers, including the Godavari and the Indravati. The Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone is a free trade zone of more than 200 hectares in Duvvada, about 24 km southwest of Visakhapatnam, and is connected to the city by train. Pop. (2001) city, 982,904; urban agglomeration., 1,345,938; (2011) city, 1,237,963; urban agglomeration., 1,728,128.
