Regional Contest Cookbook
About ACM ICPC Mission: ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) provides college students with opportunities to interact with students from other universities and to sharpen and demonstrate their problem-solving, programming, and teamwork skills. The contest provides a platform for ACM, industry, and academia to encourage and focus public attention on the next generation of computing professionals as they pursue excellence.
About the Contest The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) traces its roots to a competition held at Texas A&M in 1970 hosted by the Alpha Chapter of the UPE Computer Science Honor Society. The idea quickly gained popularity within the United States and Canada as an innovative initiative to challenge the top students in the emerging field of computer science. The contest evolved into a multi-tier competition with the first Finals held at the ACM Computer Science Conference in 1977. Operating under the auspices of ACM and headquartered at Baylor University since 1989, the contest has expanded into a global network of universities hosting regional competitions that advance teams to the ACM-ICPC World Finals. Since IBM became sponsor in 1997, the contest has increased by a factor of eight. Participation has grown to involve several tens of thousands of the finest students and faculty in computing disciplines at 1,821 universities from 83 countries on six continents. The contest fosters creativity, teamwork, and innovation in building new software programs, and enables students to test their ability to perform under pressure. Quite simply, it is the oldest, largest, and most prestigious programming contest in the world. The annual event is comprised of several levels of competition: • Local Contests – Universities choose teams or hold local contests to select one or more teams to represent them at the next level of competition. Selection takes place from a field of over 300,000 students in computing disciplines worldwide. • Regional Contests (September to December 2008) – Last year, participation increased by 10% from 6,099 to 6,700 teams representing 1,821 universities from 83 countries on six continents, not counting numerous teams competing in preliminaries. • World Finals (April 18-22, 2009, Stockholm, Sweden) – One hundred (100) world finalist teams will compete for awards, prizes and bragging rights in Stockholm hosted by KTH – Royal Institute of Technology. These teams represent the best of the finest universities on six continents - the cream of the crop. Battle of the Brains: The contest pits teams of three university students against eight or more complex, real-world problems, with a grueling five-hour deadline. Huddled around a single computer, competitors race against the clock in a battle of logic, strategy and mental endurance. Teammates collaborate to rank the difficulty of the problems, deduce the requirements, design test beds, and build software systems that solve the problems under the intense scrutiny of expert judges. Judging is relentlessly strict. The students are given a problem statement – not a requirements document. They are given an example of test data, but they do not have access to the judges’ test data and acceptance criteria. Each incorrect solution submitted is assessed a time penalty. You don’t want to waste your customer’s time when you are dealing with the supreme court of computing. The team that solves the most problems in the fewest attempts in the least cumulative time is declared the winner. About ACM The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a major force in advancing the skills of information technology professionals and students. ACM serves its global membership of 80,000 by delivering cutting edge technical information and transferring ideas from theory to practice. ACM hosts the computing industry’s leading Portal to Computing Literature. With its journals and magazines, special interest groups, conferences, workshops, electronic forums, Career Resource Centre and Professional Development Centre, ACM is a primary resource to the information technology field. For more information, see http://www.acm.org . IBM’s Commitment IBM’s sponsorship commitment to the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest is part of a company-wide effort to advance the next generation of computer scientists. For more information about other IBM college initiatives, please visit the IBM/ACM contest Web site and click on the Student Portal button – http://www.ibm.com/university/acmcontest/ and also follow the contest podcast series at http://battleofthebrains.podbean.com/ . About IBM IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM software offers the widest range of e-business infrastructure software for all types of computing platforms, allowing customers to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. The fastest way to get more information about IBM software is through the IBM home page at http://www.software.ibm.com .
ICPC 2007 Regionals @ Amritapuri Campus The 32 nd Annual ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest - Asia Region Amritapuri was held at Amritapuri Campus of Amrita University on 21 - 22 December 2007. Total 48 teams participated in the contest out of 54 selected teams from the Online Contest conducted in November 2007. Right amount of fun, entertainment and practice sessions were arranged for the contestants. Right from 19th of December, pick up from the railway station / airport was arranged for all the teams who had requested for. A student talk on "Preparation for Success in Programming Contests"was given by Prasanna, final year CSE student from National Institute of Technology, Trichy. He is one among the winners team in 2006 regionals. He has attended the 2006 world finals at Tokyo. It was a good interactive session with the contestants on 20 th evening. The inaugural ceremony was conducted by lighting the lamp. A brief inaugural talk was given by Prof. Vallath Nandakumar, who is the Regional Contest Director of Asia Region, Amritapuri contest site. Two live practice sessions were given for the contestants on 21 st December. The judges included people from State University of Buffalo at New York, Ramaiah College, Bangalore, Amrita Technologies, Kochi and also from Amrita University. Contest started on time at 08:00 AM on 22 nd of December and ended at 01:00 PM. There were 7 problems posted and the Taiwan team - Colorful Bee were the first to solve 6 problems in the given time. The “SilasticArmorFriends” team of Chennai Mathematical Institute won the second place by solving same number of problems, but in more time. Boat cruise across Kerala backwaters was also arranged as part of entertainment. A 40 minute cultural programme was performed by the students of Amrita University, Amritapuri Campus on 20th evening. It was followed by a banquet dinner arranged in the garden lawn of the universtiy campus. On the day of the contest, the Kalarippayattu, martial arts was performed by the professional team from the state of Kerala. 2007 ACM ICPC Amritapuri Site Champions Team Name: Colorful Bee Instution: Taiwan University Coach: Pu-Jen Cheng Team members: Peng-Jen Chen, Tien-Jung Chuang, Tien-Ren Chen
About Amrita University Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham – is a University, established under section 3 of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act of 1956. Drawing its inspiration, guidance, nourishment, energy, and resources directly from Amma – Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, our Chancellor, AMRITA Vishwa Vidyapeetham has now grown into a dynamic, 5-campus, multi-disciplinary, University with over 15 schools, 100 degree programs, 1500 faculty, and 12,000 students, all united in their mission towards solving the monumental scientific and societal challenges being faced by the world today. Amrita campuses have transformed the cluster of rural villages surrounding them into a vibrant landscape with significant education (starting from primary to higher secondary schools – about 60 schools called Amrita Vidyalayams all over India) and employment, thereby uplifting the entire region. In December of 2006, a six-crore bridge of Alappad to mainland Kerala was commissioned by the Math. Amrita’s nation-wide network of village resource centers launched by India’s President, makes it possible for school children and communities from eight different villages to simultaneously interact over high bandwidth interactive (two-way) audio and video communication with experts from Amrita University and Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences. Several prominent multinational corporations such as Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Cognizant, Oracle, Dhanalakshmi Bank, Infosys, also invested significantly here at AMRITA towards developing information and communication technologies for India's vast rural population. Amrita University, under the direction of its parent organization, Mata Amritanandamayi Math, has also been in the forefront of societal relief and help. After rushing to contribute significantly towards relief and reconstruction in Kerala and Tamil immediately following the Tsunami of December 2004, Amrita hosted a day-long round-table on technologies for disaster warning and management with representatives from ISRO, leading industries such as Fujitsu, and Stanford University. Mata Amritanandamayi Math also became the first organization to hand over fully built best of breed houses, thousands in number, to Tsunami affected populations of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and even as far as Sri Lanka. Even as far as the American Continent, Mata Amritanandamayi Math gave USD 1 Million for Katrina Relief directly to the Bush-Clinton fund. During this time, Amrita TV , now regarded as a highly rated channel in India but with a global reach, joined the larger Amrita family of institutions and services. Our Chancellor and inspiration "Everyone in the world should be able to sleep without fear, at least for one night. Everyone should be able to eat to his fill, at least for one day. There should be at least one day when hospitals see no one admitted due to violence. By doing selfless service for at least one day, everyone should help the poor and needy. It is Amma's prayer that at least this small dream be realised." — Mata Amritanandamayi Devi Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi – or affectionately called AMMA all over the world, Chancellor of Amrita University – is today a household name in almost all parts of the world – as an internationally-renowned humanitarian leader and an embodiment of global-scale effort to lead the society from ignorance to knowledge & awareness, from unrighteousness to human values, and from ill-health to health. It is from AMMA that “ Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham”, which in Sanskrit translates to “ Amrita University ”, is born in the year 2003. Through Her extraordinary acts of love & self and self-sacrifice, Mata Amritanandamayi Devi or AMMA, as She is known as endeared Herself to millions of people around the world. Tenderly caressing everyone who comes to Her, holding them close to Her heard in a loving embrace, Amma shares Her boundless love with all - regardless of their beliefs, who they are or why they have come to Her. In this simple yet powerful way, Amma is transforming the lives of countless people, helping their hearts to blossom one embrace at a time. Her tireless spirit of dedication of uplifting others has inspired a vast network of charitable activities through which people are discovering the sense of peace that comes from selflessly serving others.
Amritapuri Campus of Amrita University Amritapuri Campus of Amrita University, with its proximity to the international headquarters of Mata Amritanandamayi Math, has the advantage of basking in the effulgent presence of Amma’s grace; and it helps the students from geographically diverse locations to develop a sense of belonging to a supportive community. Seeking guidance and inspiration from its Chancellor - Satguru Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, the campus instills hope and confidence in the students to set their own pace, place and time. Amritapuri Campus, having a global environment with its national and international students, is committed to generate, disseminate and preserve knowledge. We seek to develop in each member the ability and passion to work wisely, creatively and effectively for the betterment of the humankind. The campus, though located in a remote village blessed with panoramic backwater expanse and tiny glistening brooks on one side and the mighty sea on the other side, provides all the modern amenities which help the students to make their campus life a memorable one. With everything from yoga classes to the full fledged cafeteria, the students can have fun in addition to a first rate university education. The life in the campus can be exciting, stimulating, demanding, challenging and sometimes even down-right hard work. There are four schools on the campus – Arts & Sciences, Ayurveda, Biotechnology & Engineering. Students excel at Amritapuri campus by utilizing the resources to the maximum extent possible. Their active participation in national level technical festivals conducted by other colleges and university campuses keep themselves upto date in recent technologies. They bag awards and prizes in IEEE and ACM student competitions conducted by other Amrita campuses as well as in the competitions conducted by other universities. Amritapuri campus of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham was one of the top 3 universities rated by IBM in 2008 for the student participation in their competition called "Great Mind Challenge". Students from School of Engineering at Amritapuri Campus were the first to fix maximum number of bugs in the Sun Solaris operating system. Only one Microsoft Ambassador in the state of Kerala is from School of Engineering, Amritapuri Campus of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. Senior students from computer science & applications, together with the expert judges from Amrita and other institutions managed the Contest Environment of ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest Regionals held in December 2007. Important information/contacts for the Onsite Coaches / Contestants of 2008 ACM ICPC Regionals
1. General Queries: Anand Shenoy [email protected] Ph: +91 9447057140 Binu P K [email protected] Ph: +91 9745036226
2. Transportation : Please send your travel plans to Darsana D [email protected] Ph: +91 9495959396 Neelima K M [email protected] . +91 9895939608 Pick up is arranged from Kayamkulam and Karunagappally railway stations. Contestants / Coaches arriving at other stations will have to come by their own. Assistance would be given by the above mentioned people. The plan should have: a. Date or arrival b. Time of arrival c. Place of arrival d. Coach accompanied / not e. Number of Contestants f. Reserve, if any g. Additional people, if any h. Number of Male / Female i. Stay (Hostel / Hotel: Normal hostel stay is provided; one room for one team and to coaches in one room. Those who wish to stay outside the campus may have to stay at their own expense. Nearest hotel: http://www.hotelcomfortregency.com ) j. Date of departure k. Time of departure l. Place of departure m. Whether planning for excursion (if yes, how many of your team?)
3. For accommodation enquiries, contact Nidheesh M [email protected] Ph: +91 9745330909 Prof. A R G Menon [email protected] Ph: 9447639100
4. Contest Environment / Rules (including Practice Sessions) Vallath Nandakumar [email protected] Ph: +91 Anish Chandran [email protected] Ph: +91 9995407801 Jayakumar P [email protected]
5. Certificates, Awards Archana K Rajan [email protected] Ph: +91 9946324040 Tentative Contest Schedule
Day 1, December 4, 2008 Day 2, December 5, 2008 Yoga / Meditation Practice Breakfast Late Registration Arrival of the teams Opening Ceremony Early Registration Video Show Lunch Practice Session – 1 Tea Lunch Dinner Boat Cruise Entertainment Banquet Dinner Practice Session - 2 Day 3, December 6, 2008 Day 4, December 7, 2008 Breakfast ACM ICPC 2008 Regional Contest Breakfast Lunch Excursion to Thenmala (Optional) Talks / Seminar by IBM / Infosys Dinner Award Ceremony Dinner
Contest Rules & Environment • The following programming languages are available to each team: o Java o C o C++ • The reference programming language of the contest is C++. The Jury has a solution for every contest problem in the reference programming language. All provided programming languages are generic enough, so that any problem can be solved in any programming language. • The Contest Management System used is Mooshak.
• For this contest the analyzer accepts the following languages and uses the following compilers:
Language Compiler Version Command line Extension C gcc 4.1.2 gcc -Wall -lm
Conduct of the contest • The contest lasts 5 hours. The contest can be lengthened in case of unforeseen difficulties. Should the contest duration be altered, every attempt will be made to notify contestants in a timely and uniform manner. • During the contest each team uses a single provided computer. Each team will have a home directory to work, which is unreachable for other teams. • During the contest, Contestants may communicate ONLY with members of his/her team, the Jury and the Support Staff. • Contestants may bring and use unannotated natural language dictionaries (except electronic ones), blank sheets of paper and instruments for writing ONLY. Contestants MAY NOT bring and use any books (except dictionaries), reference manuals, electronic dictionaries, program listings, any machine-readable information (software or data on any kind of storage), computing devices (handhelds, portable PCs, notebooks, calculator), mobile phones or any other communication devices. • At least 8 (eight) and at most 10 (ten) problems will be proposed for solution. As far as possible, problems will avoid dependence on detailed knowledge of a particular applications area or particular contest language. • During the contest, teams solve proposed problems. A solution is a program (single source file, not executable) on one of allowed programming languages. Different problems may be solved using different programming languages. • Solutions are submitted for judging during the contest using the contest software. Solutions to problems that were submitted for judging are called runs. Immediately after submission of any run, the team may continue to work on other problems. • Runs are NOT allowed to: o access the network; o work with any files except those explicitly specified in the problem statement; o attack system security; o execute other programs and create new processes; o change file system permissions; o work with subdirectories; o create or manipulate any GUI items (windows, dialog boxes, etc); o work with external devices (sound, printer, etc); o do anything else that can stir the evaluating process and the contest.
The contest software uses different methods to reveal violations of the above restrictions. • A team may be disqualified by the Jury for any activity that violates contest rules or jeopardizes the contest such as dislodging extension cords, unauthorized modification of contest materials, distracting behavior. • During the contest the contestants can make clarification requests on the problem statements. The clarification request must exactly identify the part of the problems statement that the team considers ambiguous together with the possible interpretations. The Jury encourages contestants to use the sample input and output for resolving (apparent) ambiguities. • When the Jury responds to the clarification request, the team receives its "Clarification Request" with the answer. If the clarification request is incorrect or the answer is clear from the problem description, the Jury answers "No comments". If the Jury agrees that there is an ambiguity or error in the problem statement, a clarification will be issued to all teams. Run Evaluation • Each run is judged as accepted or rejected. • The run is evaluated by executing it on a secret set of tests, common for all teams. A run is accepted, only if it gives correct answers to all tests. • Evaluation is performed automatically, that is why a program should respect formats of input and output files described in the problem statement. If not explicitly stated otherwise, all input data are considered to be correct and satisfying all restrictions from the problem statement • The time limit is the maximum execution time for the set of test. • The memory limit is the maximum amount of memory that a run may utilize • As soon as the run in evaluated, a team receives a message with the evaluation results. This message will be shown on the screen and duplicated on a run envelope. A team is informed whether the run is accepted or not • The possible outcomes are listed in the following table
Outcome Test Comment Possible causes Compilation Executable file was not Syntax error in the program; Wrong No error created after compilation. language specified for the program. Time limit The program exceeded Yes Inefficient solution; Error in program. exceeded the allowed time limit. The program exceeded Memory limit Yes the allowed memory Inefficient solution; Error in program. exceeded limit. Error in program; Purposeful rules Security The program violates the Yes vioation (the violating team is Violation contest rules. disqualified in this case). Runtime error;No 'return 0' state ment The program terminates in C/C++ program;'return (non-zero)' with non-zero exit code statement in C/C++ main function; Runtime error Yes or throws the uncaught System.exit (non-zero)' statement in Windows exception. Java; Uncaught exception. The contest software can Presentation not check output because Output format is not correct; No Yes error it does not match the output or wrong output file name. appropriate format. The answer is not Wrong answer Yes The algorithm is not correct. correct. Accepted No Run is accepted. The solution is correct
• The possible outcomes in the table are listed in their order of priority. For example, if runtime error has occured, then output is not checked. Scoring of the contest • The problem is considered solved by the team, if it is accepted by the contest software and not rejected by the Jury. • The time consumed for a solved problem is the time elapsed from the beginning of the contest to the submission of the first accepted run for this problem (in minutes) plus 20 minutes for every other run for this problem before the accepted one. For an unsolved problem no time consumed is computed. • The total time is the sum of the time consumed for each problem solved. • Teams are ranked according to the number of solved problems. Teams that solve the same number of problems are ranked by the least total time and, if need be, by the earliest time of submittal of the last accepted run. • Contestants and observers will see preliminary results of all teams during the contest. Contestants may see the results on their computers, observers - on the monitor outside the competition area. • According to the traditions of the competition, to encourage interest in the award ceremony, updating of the current information on results will be stopped half an hour before the end of the contest. Complaints, Appeals, and Remedies • The Jury is solely responsible for determining the correctness of runs. Its decisions are final and may not be appealed. • If irregularities or misconduct are observed during the contest, team members or coaches should bring them to the attention of the contest officials so that action may be taken as soon as possible.
Teams for Battle of Brains 2008 at Amritapuri Site
Indian Teams
SL NO INSTITUTE TEAM NAME 1 Army Institute of Technology, Pune #define 2 National Institute of Technology,Trichy civilcoders 3 National Institute of Technology,Trichy Itzwogay 4 National Institute of Technology,Trichy LRSL 5 Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay Brahmastra 6 Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay Mumbai Coders 7 Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay Nathrazim 8 Indian Institute of Information Technology - Hyderabad BackBenchers 9 Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi byt_maniaC 10 Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi Decoders 11 Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi jc2p2 12 National Institute of Technology, Karnataka chaithanya 13 National Institute of Technology, Karnataka googled 14 Amrita University, Amritapuri child 15 Amrita University, Bangalore clean sweep 16 Amrita University, Amritapuri Paladins 17 Amrita University, Amritapuri RavenClaw 18 Amrita University, Ettimadai Titans2 19 Madras Institute of Technology Ckrackers 20 Madras Institute of Technology CSpirit Theory of 21 Madras Institute of Technology favourability 22 Nirma University, Gujarat codewizards 23 Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi Continuum 24 Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune DiningPhilosophers 25 Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Gwalior Dirty_coders 26 Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Gwalior Dormants_iiit 27 Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Gwalior Three Knights 28 Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering, Bangalore elysia 29 Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati G++ 30 Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati G 31 Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Info & Comm Technology, Gujarat Hardcoders 32 Anna University - College of Engg, Guindy helloworldv08 33 Anna University - College of Engg, Guindy root897 34 Institute of Engineering and Management, Calcutta IdleHeads 35 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur IITKGPCSE 36 Dwarkadas J. Sanghvi College of Engineering, Mumbai Juggernauts 37 M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore Seraphim 38 Velammal Engineering College, Tamil Nadu TeckMonks 39 International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad The King's Gambit 40 Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai the_deadly_tree 41 Chennai Mathematical Institute, Chennai ThreeBlindMice 42 Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad Incredibles 43 Sri Sai Ram Engineering College, Chennai returnVoid 44 Amrita University, Bangalore syntaxTerror 45 SSN College of Engineering, Tamil Nadu unravellers 46 SNS College of Technology, Tamil Nadu code_breakers 47 Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, Sivakasi mepcoit 48 L B S College of Engineering, Kasaragod lbs_gnu Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara College of Engineering and 49 c_trackers Technology, Dharwad 50 L B S College of Engineering, Kasaragod lbs-binary 51 National Institute of Technology, Trichy nitt_coders 52 National Institute of Technology, Trichy 18tillwedie 53 Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi the_Adroits 54 Madras Institute of Technology, Chennai destroyers 55 Madras Institute of Technology, Chennai kode_kings 56 Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai AAA 57 Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai SAS 58 BRAC University, Bangla Desh BRACU Dreamers 59 Suleyman Demirel University, Kazakhistan no name yet 60 University of Dhaka, Bangla Desh DU Dark Knights 61 University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka 3amigos 62 University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka mora-cse 63 National Taiwan University randomO 64 National University of Singapore NUSSOC1 65 Bina Nusantara University, Indonesia Pandemonium
International Teams
Khan Md. Anwarus Salam 1 Md.Intekhabul Hafiz BRAC University, Bangla Desh BRACU Dreamers Annajiat Rasel Ruslan Murzalin Suleyman Demirel University, 2 Nurlan Muldashev no name yet Kazakhistan Oleg Sadykov Iqram Mahmud University of Dhaka, 3 Syed Zubair Hossain DU Dark Knights Bangla Desh Jane Alam Jan Chethiya Abeysinghe University of Moratuwa, 4 Nuwan Samarasekera 3amigos Sri Lanka Varuna Jayasiri Pramuditha Aravinda University of Moratuwa, 5 Shyam Reyal mora-cse Sri Lanka Manuranga Perera Shang-En Huang National Taiwan University, 6 Bo-Jhang Ho randomO Taiwan Der-Yu Tsai Minh Duc Ngo National University of Singapore 7 Hoanh Tien Nguyen NUSSOC1 Singapore Duc Phong Nguyen Gunawan Lie Bina Nusantara University, 8 Eko Wibowo Pandemonium Indonesia Eko Mirhard
Reaching Onsite
Nestled in a picturesque village, across the beautiful and famed backwaters of Kerala, lies the Amritapuri campus of the Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. Our technical excellence and the pristine beauty of the campus attract them. Located close to the International headquarters of the Mata Amritanandamayi Math, the campus provides students a learning environment that blends science and spirituality harmoniously. Amritapuri Campus is hosting ICPC for the second time. 2005 & 2006 contests were held at Coimbatore Campus of Amrita University. How to reach: By Air: Nearest Airports: Kochi (also known as Cochin) International Airport (COK) is140 km away from Amrita University Campus and Thirunvananthapuram (also known as Trivandrum) International Airport (TRV). is 130 km from Amritapuri Campus. A prepaid taxi available at both the airports will take you to the campus. Remember to change money at the airport, since only Indian rupees are accepted for payment. Bus services are also available from both the international Airports to the campus.
Prepaid Taxi rates to reach the campus from various places: From Kochi International Airport to Campus (Cost is only approximate) Taxi for 1 - 5 people(Indica,Indigo etc.):- Rs.2215/-(Non AC); Rs.3000/-(AC) Taxi for 6 - 8 people(Qualis,Innova etc.):- Rs.2215/- + Rs. 22/- per km. (Non AC); Rs.3007/- + Rs.22/- per km. (AC) From Trivandrum to Campus (Cost is only approximate) Taxi for 1 - 5 people(Indica,Indigo etc.):- Rs.1800/-(Non AC); Rs.1020/-(AC) Taxi for 6 - 8 people(Qualis,Innova etc.):- Rs.2040/-(Non AC); Rs.1140/-(AC) From Kollam to Vallikkavu:- Taxi for 1 - 5 people(Indica,Indigo etc.):- Rs.450/-(Non AC) Rs.255/-(AC) Taxi for 6 - 8 people(Qualis, Innova etc):- Rs.510/-(non AC) Rs.285/-(AC)
By Train: Kayamkulam Railway Station (KYJ) (12 km north of Amritapuri campus) is the closest town situated towards north of the venue of Onsite Contest. Small auto-rickshaws can bring you to Amrita University Campus from the Railway station, which takes about 20 minutes and costs about Rs.150. Taxis cost about Rs. 220. Bus services are also available from Kayamkulam Bus Stand to Vallikkavu, which is approximately five minute walk from the campus.
By Bus: From the Ernakulam (Kochi) transport bus stand, board a bus going towards Trivandrum via Alappuzha, and alight at Ochira. From Ochira, either hire an auto-rickshaw to Amritapuri straight, which is a 6 km drive from Ochira and costs about Rs.60 (or a taxi) or board a bus going towards Vallickavu. Send your queries to [email protected] Interesting places in Kollam district Accessing Kollam Telephone access code: +91-474 Air: Nearest airport: Thiruvananthapuram (71 km) Rail: Kollam is an important railhead of the Southern Railways. Enquiry Ph: 131 Road: KSRTC, Central Bus Stn. Ph: 2752008 Mayyanad (10 km south of Kollam town) Mayyanad is noted for its shrines and temples. The most important of the nine temples here is the Subramanya Temple at Umayanallor. The shrine is said to have been consecrated by the great Hindu philosopher Sree Sankaracharya. There are frequent buses from Kollam to Mayyanad. Thangasseri (5 km from Kollam town) This seaside village of historic importance has the ruins of an old Portuguese fort and churches built in the 18th century. The Thangasseri lighthouse which is 144 feet high, is open to visitors from 1530 - 1730 hrs. There are buses at 15 minute intervals from Kollam town.
Kottukal Rock Cut Cave Temple (11 km from Chadayamangalam): This temple situated on the Thiruvananthapuram - Kottayam MC Road is an idyllic example of rock cut temple architecture.
Jatayupara A huge rock at Chadayamangalam takes its name from the mythical bird Jatayu in the epic Ramayana, who is believed to have collapsed on the rock after failing in his attempts to thwart Ravana's kidnapping of Sita.
Sasthamkotta (29 km from Kollam town) This vast fresh water lake surrounded by hills on three sides is the largest of its kind in Kerala. The ancient Sastha Temple which lends its name to the town, is an important pilgrim centre. There are frequent bus services from Kollam. Accommodation is available at the PWD Rest House.
Thenmala (66 km east of Kollam) Covered by dense forest, rubber and tea plantations, Thenmala is home to India's first planned eco-tourism project. Selected by World Tourism Organisation as one of the world's best eco-friendly projects, Thenmala has a leisure zone that includes winding pathways, a sway bridge and a boardwalk; a culture zone with an amphitheatre and a musical fountain and an adventure zone. For details contact: Ph: 0471-2329770 Fax:2337037 Email: [email protected]/ thenmalaecotourism.org. For trained local guides contact: Ph: 0475-2344725
Palaruvi Waterfalls (75 km from Kollam town) Palaruvi which means stream of milk makes its way down the rocks, from a height of 300 feet. The Palaruvi woods is a beautiful picnic spot. The PWD Inspection Bungalow and the KTDC Motel offer comfortable accommodation. Other attractions: Trekking to the waterfalls, bathing in the river.
Picnic Village This village located at Ashramam, along the backwater front, is the main centre for recreational activities in Kollam. A 200 year old Government Guest House, an Adventure Park, a Tourist Boat Club, a Children's Traffic Park and a Yatri Nivas are all housed in this vast tourist complex.