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Urban Scenario |
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Gujarat State is situated on the west coast of India. It is bounded by the Arabian Sea in the West, by the States of Rajasthan in the North and North-east, by Madhya Pradesh in the East and by Maharashtra in the South and South East. The State has an international boundary with Pakistan at the northwestern fringe. The State has a long coastline of about 1600 kms.
The state came into existence as a separate State on 1st May 1960. Administratively, the State is divided in to 26 districts, sub-divided into 226 talukas. The total geographical area of the state is 1,96,022 sq.km, which accounts for 6.19 percent of the total area of the country. Total population of the State as per census 2001 is 5.06 crores which includes the urban population of 1.89 crores distributed in 242 urban centers.
Urban Development Patterns Gujarat State is steadily transforming into a predominantly urban society . At the beginning of this century, Gujarat’s population was 9.09 Million, of which 22 percent was living in urban areas. Over the years, the share of urban population has gone up to 38 percent. The last four decades saw an almost three and a half times increase in urban population of the state (from 5.31 million in 1961 to 18.93 million in 2001). Urbanisation Levels and Growth Trends
Urban-Rural Share: Over the decades the share of incremental population going to urban areas has shown an increasing trend. Of the total increment in population during the period 1951-61 a meager 20 percent went to urban areas. During the subsequent four decades, this share increased to 36, 42, 50 and 50 percent respectively. With these trends continuing, forecasts suggest that, by 2021, 35 million people constituting nearly 47 percent of the state population would be residing in urban Gujarat.
Source: Census of India
Urban Settlement Pattern The Census of India classifies urban areas under different classes as Class-I, II, etc., . On the other hand for administrative purposes, under the BPMC Act and Gujarat Nagarpalika Act (1963), these areas are classified as municipal corporations and municipalities. At present, there are 7 municipal corporations and 159 municipalities. The remaining Census towns having population less than 15000 people are governed under the rural administrative setup as per the provisions of the Gujarat Panchayat Act (1995). According to the 2001 Census of India, Gujarat now has a network of 242 urban areas. In 1991, there were 264 urban areas. The decline in number is mainly because many of the urban areas, which were independent towns, have now been merged with other bigger cities and towns.
Urban Population Growth, 1901-2001
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