Thumba
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thumba | |
|---|---|
  Thumba Location in Kerala, India | |
| Coordinates: 8°31′0″N 76°52′0″E / 8.51667°N 76.86667°E | |
| Country |  India |
| State | Kerala |
| District | Thiruvananthapuram |
| Government | |
| • Body | Trivandrum Corporation |
| Languages | |
| • Official | Malayalam, English |
| Time zone | UTC+5:30 (IST) |
| Vehicle registration | KL-22 |
Thumba is a coastal area of Thiruvananthapuram city, the capital of Kerala, India.
Thumba is a vast village bordering Menamkulam in the east, St. Dominic's Vettucaud in the north, and Kochuthura in the south; towards its west is the Arabian Sea. While the border with Menamkulam is the Parvathi Puthannaar canal, the border with Kochuthura is the Rajiv Gandhi Nagar road. The entire village is flat at sea level, and the ground near to the coast is made of tan-coloured beach sand. This is in stark contrast to the rest of the village, where the ground is made of white sand, where, till the developments of the late 1990s, large amounts of a medicinal herb with white flowers called Thumba grew in abundance, hence the name. It is well connected by road and the closest railway stations are the Halt stop of Veli Railway station and the Major Junction of Kochuveli Railway station.
Overview
Thumba became well known to the outsiders after the establishment of Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS), which was the first of that kind in India. TERLS was founded in Thumba in 1962 in the district of Trivandrum on the southern tip of India very close to Earth's magnetic equator to launch sounding rockets.TERLS was dedicated to the United Nations on 2 February 1968.
Dr. H.G.S. Murthy, D Eswar Das, M R Kurup and A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, later President of India were amongst the initial team of rocket engineers.[1] The new Vikram Sarabhai Space Center is located close to TERLS and has become one of ISRO's premiere research and development sites.
