The Christian Medical College Vellore is located in the city of Vellore, the administrative headquarters of Vellore District in the southern state of Tamil Nadu (shown in red in the map). Its population is about 200,000. It is a marketing centre for a fairly prosperous agricultural area. The streets are lined with small shops and crowded with people, cyclists, cars, buses, lorries and livestock.

There is an interesting large Hindu temple - the Jalakandeswari Temple- and a 13th Century fort in the centre of town. The Vellore fort (image below) has played a well-known part in Indian history.

Getting to Vellore

The airport closest to Vellore is in Chennai. An airport bus will take you from the airport into the city from where you can take a taxi to the Central Railway station. Alternatively you can go from the airport to the bus stand at Koyambedu.

Train and bus services to Vellore are frequent, cheap and quite satisfactory. Either journey takes about 3 hours. If you choose to travel by train you should buy your ticket to Katpadi, which is the railway station that serves Vellore. Autorickshaws, buses and taxis are available at Katpadi station for the 7 km journey to the Hospital Campus. Buses from Chennai will bring you right into the centre of the town of Vellore, within walking distance of the hospital.

The most convenient, but expensive mode of transport from the airport at Chennai to Vellore is by taxi. If you require a taxi to pick you up at Chennai airport and bring you to Vellore kindly indicate so. Please inform us of your travel plans well in advance, giving your date and time of arrival and other flight details.

Alternatively, you can pay for the taxi in Indian currency when you get to your destination in Vellore. If you choose to do this, please ensure that you change your foreign currency into Indian rupees at Chennai airport itself.

If you would like to stay on in Chennai before coming to Vellore, please make your own arrangements. The Inter-Church Service Agency, 107 Pantheon Road, Egmore,Chennai-600008, phone no: +91-44-28261905 or The YWCA International Guest House, EVR Salai, Egmore, Chennai (+91 44 25324234) are possible options.

Getting to CMC 

The hospital campus is situated in the middle of Vellore town while the college campus is situated at Bagayam, seven km away from the hospital. All medical students live in hostels on the college campus in Bagayam. The pre-clinical subjects are taught at the college campus. In addition, on the college campus, there are the patient care units - the Community Health Department which runs the 80-bedded CHAD hospital, the Rehabilitation Institute for physically handicapped persons and the Mental Health Centre, which is CMC's Department of Psychiatry, and which includes a training centre for mentally challenged children

All other clinical departments are on the hospital campus in Vellore town, except for the Ophthalmology Department which is located at the Schell Campus, a separate campus two km south of the main hospital, and RUHSA (Rural Unit for Health and Social Affairs), a comprehensive integrated rural health and development project, located 20 miles northwest of Vellore. The College of Nursing is located at the Kagithapettarai Campus located a kilometre away from the hospital campus.