Avadi

Avadi is a city in the Chennai metropolitan area, in Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu, India, about 22 kilometres from Chennai Central Railway Station and 24 kilometres from the district headquarters at Tiruvallur. It is the seat of the Avadi City Corporation, the Avadi City Police and the Avadi taluk. The area is ringed by major defence establishments, among them the Heavy Vehicles Factory, an Ordnance Factory Board engine factory and the Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment, and it also holds a number of universities and engineering colleges. Avadi Railway Station links it to the Chennai Suburban Railway. The origin of the name is uncertain: one explanation joins the Tamil words for cow and place, while a popular acronym theory is doubted because a railway station already carried the name in 1873. The 2011 census counted 345,996 residents, making it the tenth most populous place in Tamil Nadu.