The Republic of India (Bhārat in Hindi) is the seventh largest country and second most populous country in the world. It occupies a subcontinent of Asia that projects southward into the North Indian Ocean, separating the Bay of Bengal on the east from the Arabian Sea on the west. Before 1947 it was a patchwork of regions governed as British colonies and semi-independent princely states under British supervision. In 1947 this British Raj was partitioned into the independent states of India and Pakistan. Several French and Portuguese colonies embedded in the territory of India were absorbed in 1950 and 1961, respectively. India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories. This page lists lighthouses of Andhra Pradesh, a large state occupying the central portion of India's east coast. Facing the Bay of Bengal, this coastline is almost everywhere low and sandy with numerous offshore shoals. The largest port in the state is Vishakhapatnam (often called Vizag for short) but there are many smaller ports. For administration the state is divided into 13 districts. India's lighthouse heritage is British. However, only a fraction of the original British lighthouses remain in use; new towers have been built at most of the stations. India has also built many lighthouses at new locations in recent years. Nearly all of the larger Indian lighthouses are staffed and by long tradition the staff will receive visitors at a specific time, usually late in the afternoon. Several lighthouses have been developed as tourist attractions and have longer hours. Hindi and English are official languages in India, with English serving as a lingua franca for the entire nation. The Indian Constitution recognizes another 21 languages, called scheduled languages, and each of the coastal states has its own scheduled language in official use. In Telugu, the official language of Andhra Pradesh, the word for a lighthouse is transliterated from English as laiṭ'haus (లైట్హౌస్); dvīpaṁ is an island, nadi is a river, and naukāśrayaṁ is a harbor. Lighthouses and aids to navigation in India are administered by the Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships (DGLL), an agency of the Ministry of Shipping. Lighthouses of the Srikakulam District of northernmost Andhra Pradesh are maintained by the Kolkata Directorate of DGLL; the remaining lighthouses of Andhra Pradesh are maintained by the Vishakhapatnam Directorate. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume F of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
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![]() Old and new Vakalapudi Lights, Vakalapudi, December 2022 ex-Google Maps photo by Bhuvan Eswar |
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
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Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: West Bengal and Odisha | South: Tamil Nadu and Puducherry
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Posted January 20, 2006. Checked and revised July 11, 2024. Lighthouses: 37. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.