Pattukkottai

Pattukkottai comes under the Pattukkottai assembly constituency which elects a member to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly once every five years and it is a part of the Thanjavur (Lok Sabha constituency) which elects its Member of Parliament (MP) once in five years. The town is administered by the Pattukkottai municipality, which covers an area of As of 2011, the town had a population of 73,135. The town is a part of the fertile Cauvery delta region, but the fishery is the major occupation. Roadways and railways are the major mode of transportation to Pattukkottai and the nearest international airport is Tiruchirapalli Airport, located away from the town, in the city of Tiruchirappalli.

According to an inscription, the fortress of Pattukkottai was constructed by Vanaji Pandithar, a feudatory of the Thanjavur Maratha ruler Shahuji I in 1686–87. Pattukkottai was ruled by the Thanjavur Marathas till 1799 when it was annexed by the British East India Company. It became a part of Tanjore district in 1801. Having a population of 7,603 in 1901, Pattukkottai experienced a population splurge between 1941 and 1981, when its population quadrupled. Sri Nadiamman temple is the most important Hindu temple in Pattukkottai and is of considerable antiquity. In 2018, cyclone Kaja hit Pattukottai and majority of its farmland and vegetation were lost. It almost took more than year for normalcy to prevail. Thiru S. D. Somasundaram,R. Venkatraman,V. Nadimuthu pillai and Kalyana Sundram,Alagiri are some of the most famous people born in this soil

Pattukkottai is located along the southeastern coast of India in the East central region of Tamil Nadu, in the general Kaveri River delta area. Pattukkottai Municipality covers an area of 21.83 km2., and has an average elevation of 5  meters (16  feet). Pattukkottai is 48 km from the city of Thanjavur. The coast of the Bay of Bengal is just 12  km away, with Manora fort 15  km away from this town. Pattukkottai lies on an extremely dry, rugged plateau. The Pattukkottai division is the only division of Thanjavur district which is not watered either by the Kaveri River or any of its tributaries or distributaries.

Elected membersMember of Legislative AssemblyThiru K. AnnaduraiMember of ParliamentThiru S. S. PalanimanickamMunicipality Chairman and Vice chairmanChairmanTmt S. Shanmugapriyavice chairmanThiru P. SureshMunicipality CommissionerCommissionerThiru T. Soundararajan

The municipality of Pattukkottai was constituted on 1 April 1965 covering an area of 21.83 sq. kilometres. Pattukkottai was upgraded to a second grade municipality on 1 April 1975 and a first grade municipality on 7 April 1984. As per the latest draft electoral rolls released by the election commission, the Pattukottai assembly segment comprises 1,77,798 voters (85,476 male and 83,902 female). K. Annadurai from Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was elected as the MLA in the 2021 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election. Pattukkottai is a part of the Thanjavur Lok Sabha constituency and elects a member to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India, once every five years. In 2019 Indian general election S. S. Palanimanickam from Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was elected as the MP.

In British times, brass vessels, cotton cloths and mats were the main manufactures of Pattukkottai. In 1951, anthropologist Kathleen Gough notes that Pattukkottai had the largest portion of zamindari and inam lands in Thanjavur district. Agriculture, using water from the Kaveri, though the town hosts a number of other businesses. Paddy and coconut are the major crops, however, a large variety of produce is grown in and around Pattukkottai. Pattukkottai was declared a "coir cluster" in September 2007 in order to promote traditional coir based industries. In Tamil Nadu, after Pollachi, coconut cultivation has been extensively done in Pattukkottai's surroundings on 30,000 hectares of land along the coast. Pattukottai has been declared a Coir Cluster under a Central scheme called "Scheme Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries" (SFURT). A coconut complex at Ponnvarayankottai near Pattukottai is to be constructed at a cost of Rs.4 Crores and will have sections for trading, grading coconuts and separating copra, drying yard, shops for traders, and for tourists, restrooms, information centre and parking lots. It would be expanded in future depending upon the needs of farmers. There are also demands to set up industries to promote Coir related products with value addition.

Electricity supply to Pattukkottai is regulated and distributed by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB). The city along with its suburbs is a part of Trichy Electricity Distribution Circle. Water supply is handled by the municipality and the town gets an average of 7.65 million litres of water everyday from the Sathankadu head works pumped from 3 pumping stations. Pattukkottai has a total of 63 kilometres of metalled roads, 9.5 kilometres of cemented roads and 0.1 kilometre of unsurfaced roads. There is no underground drainage system in the town and the current sewerage system for disposal of sullage is through septic tanks, open drains and public conveniences. There is one government hospital, 24 private hospitals and a lot of practising doctors in Pattukkottai who take care of the health care needs of the citizens. There are a total of 2,883 street lamps: 448 sodium lamps, 2,432 tube lights and three high mast beam lamps. The municipality operates one markets, namely the Alagiri Daily Market, while there is a private market by name V. N. S. Market. Pattukkottai comes under the Thanjavur Telecom circle of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), India's state owned telecom and internet services provider. Apart from telecom, BSNL also provides broadband internet service. Pattukkottai has a total of 21 primary and secondary schools and a polytechnic college. There are two arts colleges and one government engineering college.

Pattukkottai is connected by road and rail with the rest of Tamil Nadu.

Pattukkottai comes under Tiruchirappalli Railway Division of the Southern Railway. Pattukkottai railway station is situated on the main route of Chennai Egmore Rameswaram line, which is located approximately 500 metres east from Bus station towards Adirampattinam. The gauge conversion work completed by last quarter of 2019, but still not much trains are operational thru this route due to operational difficulties.

There are regular buses to Chennai, Bangalore, Thanjavur, Tiruchirappalli, Kumbakonam, Velankanni, Nagapattinam, Vedaranyam, Mannargudi, Madurai, Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Kanyakumari, Tiruchendur, Karaikudi, Pudukkottai, Palani, Tirupati, Rameswaram, Ramanathapuram, Tirunelveli, Nagercoil, Marthandam, Thiruvananthapuram, Tenkasi, Kollam, Thoothukudi, and other towns and cities throughout Tamil Nadu. There are some newly created routes which heads to inter state cities also. Pattukkottai forms a part of the division number. 1 of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation which is headquartered at Kumbakonam. The town has 2 bus depots for inter city bus services.