Coimbatore

City in Tamil Nadu, southern India, on the Noyil River in the Nilgiri Hills, 480 km/300 mi southwest of Chennai (formerly Madras); population (2001) 1,446,000. It has important cotton and agricultural processing industries, along with the manufacture of agricultural machinery. These industries have expanded since the development of hydroelectric power from the Pykara Falls in the 1930s. There is an agricultural research university and the Indian Air Force Administrative College.