with the Town Hall in 1905. Transport The town has a total road length of . Until 1993, Vijaya Krishna Bus Service was the sole operator in Bapatla. APSRTC started operations in 1994 with its bus services to various parts of the state from Bapatla bus station. The town has frequent buses to Vijayawada, Guntur, Ponnur, Repalle and Chirala. The National Highway 216 passes through the town, which connects Digamarru and Ongole. State Highway 48 also known as Guntur-Bapatla-Chirala (G.B.C) Road passes through Ponnur and connects the town with the district headquarters, Guntur. Bapatla railway station is located on the Howrah-Chennai main line of Indian Railways. It is a –A category station and was recognised as an Adarsh station in the Vijayawada railway division of South Central Railway zone. Education and research The primary and secondary school education is imparted by government, aided and private schools, under the School Education Department of the state. The mediums of instruction followed by different schools are English and Telugu. The town has many schools, colleges and universities. The Agricultural College was established on 11 July 1945 by Government of Composite Madras State. It is the oldest of all the colleges under Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University. Bapatla Engineering College, College of Agricultural Engineering under Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, College of Food Science and Technology, Bapatla Polytechnic College, and Bapatla College of Arts & Sciences are other prominent ones. Research and defense establishments An automatic weather station of India Meteorological Department is located in the town which records the temperatures. BPT 5204 (rice variety of Sona Masuri), BPT 2270 (Bhavapuri Sannalu) and BPT 2231 (Akshaya) were developed at this rice research unit. There are also a number of research institutes of this agricultural university, such as the AICRP on Betelvine, and a cashew research station. Air Force base Suryalanka Indian Air Force base on the shore of the Bay of Bengal is located near Bapatla. The base carries out activities such as testing missiles and guided weapon firing range. Notable people Pawan Kalyan, Indian actor See also List of urban local bodies in Andhra Pradesh References Towns in Guntur district Mandal headquarters in Guntur district