What You Need To Know
Kanpur formerly Cawnpore is the administrative headquarters of Kanpur Nagar district and Kanpur division. It is the second largest industrial town in north India, following Delhi.
Kanpur is home to several educational institutions, including an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Kanpur), CSJM University, Harcourt Butler Technological Institute (HBTI), University Institute of Engineering and Technology, GSVM Medical College and Dr. Ambedkar Institute of Technology (AITH).
The name is believed to have derived from Karnapur (meaning “town of Karna”, one of the heroes of the Mahabharata). Another theory is that it came from the nearby town of Makanpur, earlier known as Khairabad, where the Sufi saint of the Madariya Sufi order, Badiuddin Zinda Shah Madar, settled
Population: 2.92 million(2011)
Area: 403.7 km²
Currency
The Indian rupee (Rs) is India’s currency, and comes in denominations of Rs1,000, 500, 100, 50, 20, 10 and 5 notes. Coins come in denominations of Rs5, 2 and 1, as well as 50 and 25 paise. There are 100 paise in a rupee.
You can’t exchange Indian rupees outside of the country so if you’re going to need money to get to your hotel, you must head to the airport’s exchange bureau when you arrive.
The best exchange rates are offered by the banks in India, however the cheapest option is to withdraw cash from the ATMs as they are convenient and give the most competitive rates. You’ll find no shortage of unauthorised money changers, but it’s inadvisable to use them as you could be cheated easily.
ATMs are widely available in the big cities across India and they typically accept Cirrus and PLUS. Most ATMs allow you to withdraw Rs10,000 at a time, which is roughly US$200. Credit cards are accepted in the larger restaurants, hotels and shops, with Visa and MasterCard being the most popular; expect a two per cent service change. Traveller’s cheques are accepted at banks, hotels and some restaurants.
Climate
The climate in Kanpur is warm and temperate. When compared with winter, the summers have much more rainfall. According to Köppen and Geiger, this climate is classified as Cwa. The average annual temperature is 25.6 °C in Kanpur. The average annual rainfall is 820 mm. The driest month is November, with 2 mm of rain. In August, the precipitation reaches its peak, with an average of 277 mm. May is the warmest month of the year. The temperature in May averages 34.0 °C. At 15.6 °C on average, January is the coldest month of the year.
Languages
Languages spoken in Kanpur are Hindi, English, Avadhi and Urdu.
Getting Around
There are Air Conditioned city buses running by UPSRTC under JNNURM. These buses offer cheaper rates than Auto Rickshaws.
You can travel using auto rickshaws or the tempo (three wheelers) called Vikram. Vikram is the cheapest mode of transportation. Vikram drivers have a fixed rate for point-to-point travels and its an experience in itself. The quality of auto rickshaws in Kanpur is not very comfortable and there is no system for charging the fare by Kilo meters.
Cycle rickshaws have no fixed fares for the destinations. They are very convenient way of travel, especially for the short distances. One has to bargain for the fare for taking their service
Kanpur Central is the major rail head. Beside, Kanpur Anwarganj, Panki, Govindpuri, Rawatpur and Kalyanpur are major railway halt stations. Kanpur Metro is planned MRTS for the city.
