Cherupuzha (Kannur)

Tejaswini River, also called "kariankode puzha" in Malayalam, which is comparatively small among 44 rivers of Kerala, flows beside this town. It originates from Brahmagiri hills of Coorg forest in Karnataka, enters Kerala near Pulingome, flows through the districts of Kannur and Kasaragod and meets the Arabian Ocean, near Nileshwaram as a part of Valiyaparamba Backwaters. Tejaswini, which is 64 km long, do have a rafting stretch of 20 km with plenty of rapids extending up to class-3.

The nearest airport (70 km) is at Mattanur and Mangalore, Calicut are not far away. All of them are international airports but direct flights are available only to Middle Eastern countries.

The nearest railway station is 34 km away Payyanur on Shoranur-Mangalore Section. Direct trains are available to Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Mangalore, Ernakulam, Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai and other parts of the country.

Kerala Hill Highway (SH 59) passes through Cherupuzha town connects it with Iritty and Mysore, Bangalore can be accessed on the eastern side.

The National Highway(NH 66) passes through Perumba junction through proposed Ezhimala - Bagamandalam Highway. Goa and Mumbai can be accessed on the northern side and Cochin and Thiruvananthapuram can be accessed on the southern side.

Two main roads are Cherupuzha-Payyanur and Cherupuzha - Alakode. All the other roads in this area were built by the people themselves. The roads, Cherupuzha-Pulingome – Kottathalachi, Edavaramba – Koombankunnu, Kariyakkara – Koombankunnu, Cherupuzha-Pulingome-Rajagiri, Rajagiri-Josegiri, Vazhakkundam – Churappadavu, Chunda – Vilakkuvettam and Umayanchal – Kottathalachi are examples of the collective effort of people of Cherupuzha and Pulingome.

Another important road in the area is Cherupuzha-Thirumeni- Muthuvom road which is of a length of 9 kilometers. From Thirumeni, one can reach to its outskirts like Chathamangalam, Thabore, Muthuvom and Korali. Both private and public transport buses are available from Cherupuzha to Kannur, Kozhikode, Cochin and Bangalore.

A new bridge, for ezhimla-Payyannur-Cherupuzha-Pulingome - Talakkaveri-Bhagamandala-Bengaluru road, has already been constructed over Pulingome river near Cherupuzha, connecting Kerala and Karnataka. Talks are on between Karnataka, Kerala and central Governments on this project. If this road became a reality, the distance to Bangalore and Mysore would be reduced by more than 60 kilometers also 120 kilometers between Kannur and Bangalore.

This road stretching across Kerala, connecting Kannur and Kasaragod districts.

The development for bypass route from Cherupuzha traverses through Prapoyil, Thirumeni, Chathamangalam, Parappa, Karthikapuram Road is still underway, but very significant because it connects Cherupuzha to places like Karthikapuram, Parappa, Neduvode and Rayarome at the shortest distance. This is the only road that goes through the common meeting place of Cherupuzha, Alakode and Udayagiri panchayaths. Efforts are on to renovate the road completely and make it the bypass of Alakode-Therthaly-Cherupuzha Road. The advantage is in case of any complication on the major road, the bypass can be used.

The major attraction in Cherupuzha is a hanging bridge in Tejaswini river (also known as karyamkode puzha) which connects both Kasaragod and Kannur districts.