The spice port's railway
Calicut was one of the great spice ports of the world. Vasco da Gama landed near here in 1498, and the city's name gave the English language the word calico. Kozhikode railway station (code CLT, keeping the old Calicut initials) opened on 2 January 1888 as the western terminus of the Madras Railway, the end of the line that crossed the peninsula from Madras through the Palakkad Gap to the Malabar coast. The station celebrated its 125th anniversary on 2 January 2013.
Kerala's second-biggest earner
Kozhikode is the largest station by passenger revenue in the Palakkad division, earning about ₹200 crore in 2018–19, and ranks second in Kerala. In 2016–17 it handled about 28,463 passengers a day. It is graded NSG-2, and was described as the only A-1 graded station in its division under the older classification.
India's cleanest station, 2018
In January 2018, Kozhikode was ranked the cleanest railway station in India. It was also an early adopter of security technology: in 2012 it installed an integrated system of baggage scanners, CCTV and vehicle scanners.
Tracks and platforms at Kozhikode
CLT has 4 platforms on 6 tracks, just 11 metres above sea level. Platforms 1 and 4 can take 24-coach trains; platforms 2 and 3 take 20 coaches, which is worth knowing if your coach number is high on a long train.
Trains along the coast
Kozhikode is on the busy west-coast route between Mangaluru and Shoranur, with trains to Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai, Mumbai via the Konkan Railway, and Delhi. See services in our timetable search.
Around Kozhikode
- Kappad beach, where Vasco da Gama's landing is commemorated, is a short drive north.
- Kozhikode's beachfront and the Mananchira square are close to the station; the city is famous for its halwa and biryani.