Chennai (Madras, India)

Chennai (fka Madras Listeni) is a thriving port city and the capital of the state Tamil Nadu in India. It covers a total area of 426 km2 (165 ml2) and has population around 100,000. The city is one of South India's largest economic, educational and cultural centers, the country's 6th-largest and 4th-most populous (as urban agglomeration). Chennai Metro is the world's 36th-largest by population (around 9 million).

Chennai Port (locode INMAA) is on the Coromandel Coast, off the Bay of Bengal. Annually, the cruise port handles 30-40 ship calls and ~60,000 tourists, most of whom are domestic. Regularly scheduled cruises connect Chennai with popular destinations such as India's Cochin, Mumbai and Visakhapatnam/Vizag, Trincomalee (Sri Lanka), Singapore.

Chennai Port (India) is set to expand its cruise terminal. The Port is managed by the Chennai Port Trust (ChPT).

In February 2025, ChPT announced plans to expand of the cruise terminal area, of which only 60% of its area is currently in use and 40% remains underutilized. The expansion project is to enlarge the terminal's current waiting area (~2880 m2) by 1500 m2, incorporating two distinct routes - one for embarkation and another for disembarkation, to facilitate faster passenger movement. Additional enhancements include increased space for queuing, seating, and immigration, the installation of a new escalator (on the building's western side, complementing the escalator on its eastern side) and dedicated areas for duty-free shopping and convenience stores. The cruise terminal expansion is scheduled to start in April and to be completed by September (2025).

Chennai City is among the most visited by foreign tourists cities in India, as well as the world's 47th most visited. The Quality of Living Survey rated it as India's safest city. It attracts around 45% of health tourists to India and 30-40% of all domestic health tourists. As such, it is often called "India's health capital".

• In 2015 Lonely Planet (online tourism guide) ranked Chennai one of the world's top 10 cities to visit. It is also ranked beta-level city in Global Cities Index and "best Indian city" by India Today in its 2014 survey. Lonely Planet also ranked it the world's 9th-best cosmopolitan city.
• BBC named Chennai the "hottest" city (worth living in for long term and worth visiting), citing a mixture of both traditional and modern amenities and values.
• National Geographic ranked its food as the world's second best.

Chennai City grew up around the English settlement of Fort St George and gradually absorbed the surrounding villages and towns. Further afield, travelers can visit the sacred city of Kanchipuram with its impressive shrines and temples. Chennai was founded in 1639 by the East India Company/EIC (1600-1874) as a fort and trading post. It was EIC's first settlement in India.

Among the signature tourist attractions are the Dravidian temples, which compete with buildings and monuments from the country's British colonial past. Among those are the High Court and Chepauk Palace. The city is also a leader in Indian film-making (Bollywood), as well as a university and cultural center. Other places of interest include Kapaleeshwarar Temple (ancient shrine to Shiva in the Mylapore neighborhood - on the photo below), the shore temple at Mahabalipuram, Guindy National Park, and the Cathedral of San Thome, said to have been created over the burial place of Apostle Thomas.