Walayar

Walayar is a small developing town, located in the Palakkad district of Kerala, India. It is situated in the border between the states of Kerala and Coimbatore city in Tamil Nadu on NH 47 where the Commercial Tax (previously sales tax) Check Post, motor vehicles check post, and excise check posts are located. Due to the high traffic on this route (most of the goods import into Kerala happens through road and predominantly through this road), the place was notorious for the traffic jams. But now the condition has changed with the improvement of National Highway 47 from Walayar to Vadakkanchery. Now the NH is four lane with service roads and other facilities. There is exclusive service road for goods vehicles from the entry point of the check post to the exit point so that passenger vehicles can easily pass through the check post area without any interruption. Widening of NH 47 completed on 2015. Most of the passenger vehicles coming from other states, viz buses, tourist cabs, pilgrims enter Kerala through this gateway. Walayar is considered as the Gateway of Kerala from Mainland india , as other border checkposts are located in ghat section and huge entry like walayar .Also Walayar have railway entry point to Kerala . Due to its location in Tamilnadu border (State with lottery ban) walayar is famous for Kerala Lottery outlets.Many tamils comes to walayar to buy Kerala State Lottery.Similary Toddy is also banned in Tamilnadu and tamils comes to walayar to get Tender desi toddy

Walayar has a railway station which is about 100 meters away from NH 47. Walayar came to limelight of late due to the presence of the Sales Tax Check post (supposed to be the most corrupted before and one of the 10 biggest check posts in India).

There is a misunderstanding that there is only one check post in Walayar. Actually there are five check posts of different Departments of Kerala Government in Walayar as detailed below:

1. Commercial Tax Check Post-Commercial Tax Department, Kerala
2. Motor Vehicle Check Post-Motor Vehicle Department, Kerala
3. Excise Check Post-State Excise Department, Kerala
4. Forest Check Post-Kerala Forest &Wild Life Department, Kerala
5. Rinder Pest Check Post -Animal Husbandry Department, Kerala

As far as the entire check posts of all departments are concerned Commercial Taxes check Post stands first in terms of number of officials and in terms of Revenue to the state because it has nearly 200 officials where as all other check post have less than 40 officials. Commercial Taxes comprises 76% of the State Exchequer.

Walayar is also famous for lottery shops which are located in abundance here. Exporting timber also is a major occupation.

There is also a Deer Park located beside the NH 47 which presently now in a poor condition due to lack of facilitation. The Park spread over 110 acres of forest area mainly of Teak plantation started in 1997 got recognition from the Zoo Authority recently with conditions to convert it as a Safari Park providing more amenities for the Deer and other animals and also to the visitors. The Park located 22 km from Palakkad town could be developed as a tourist centre as one can see Deers and other small animals roam about in their natural habitat. This Deer park is also refereed as Jayaprakash Narayan Smrithivanam.

Since Walayar is a gateway it is also the main entry point to the main tourists centres of the District like Malampuzha, Kanjirapuzha, Nelliampathy, Silent Valley, Mangalam Dam etc.

Malabar Cements Ltd, a Public Sector Undertakings owned by Kerala Government which produces grey cement is one of the landmarks of Walayar.

This town connects to other parts of India through Palakkad city. National Highway No.544 connects to Coimbatore and Bangalore. Other parts of Kerala is accessed through National Highway No.66 going through Thrissur. Coimbatore International Airport is the nearest airport which is about 43 km away. Palakkad Junction railway station is the nearest major railway station. Coimbatore town bustand to walayar bus stop number- 96

• http://palakkad.nic.in/