Urban Scenario

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.

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).

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.

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 Primacy: The state of Gujarat has a very wide urban base. Unlike other states, the problem of over dependency on one city does not exist. The largest city, Ahmedabad, which is de-facto state capital, accounts for over 23 percent of urban population. About half of the urban population of the State lives in seven municipal corporation areas.
The seven municipal corporations --Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar and Junagadh (hereinafter referred to as “corporation cities”) - accommodate more than half of the state’s urban population, indicating their primacy. Gujarat now has three million-plus cities - Ahmedabad, Surat, and Vadodara. The process of urbanisation is expected to intensify over the next two decades. The city of Ahmedabad is likely to grow into a mega-city with the inclusion of Gandhinagar, Sanand, Kalol and many other urban areas into its fold. Similar trends are anticipated for the other corporation cities.

Size-Class Distribution: The number of large cities is increasing over the decades . In 1991, Gujarat had 21 large cities (Class I cities with a population of more than 100,000); 27 medium towns (Class II towns with 50,001-100,000 population); and 177 small towns (Class III-VI towns with a population of less than 50,000). By 2001 the number of Class-I and Class-II towns have gone up to 25 and 38 respectively. There are 81 and 57 number of Class-III and Class-IV towns in Gujarat. Of the total urban population 81 percent urban population resides in just 63 (Class-I and II towns) of the 242 cities and towns of the state.

On the basis of the 2001 Census results, it is evident that a number of municipalities will be eligible to graduate into the next class. Graduation of municipalities to a higher class as well as from non-municipal to municipal status would place a significantly higher demand on services and infrastructure. This also means a requirement for improving the quality of human resources involved in urban management tasks in these towns. It is important to note, however, that urban growth in Gujarat in all size class categories decelerated during the ‘80s compared with the earlier decade . Moreover, it is slowly shifting from the urban core (within the urban local authority areas) to peripheral areas. The expanding share of population living on the fringes of corporation cities and other large and medium towns during the past decade has been remarkable .

Full Forms

i. Statutory Towns i.e. Municipal Corporation, Municipal Board, Cantonment Board, Notified Area etc.
ii. Census towns which are non-statutory towns and are actually rural areas but satisfy following criteria:

• Minimum Population of 5000
• Density of population of at least 400 per sq.km
• 75 percent of the male working population engaged in non-agricultural activity

iii. City:

• Class I Town - Population of 100000 and above
• Class II Town - Population of 50000 - 99999
• Class III Town - Population of 20000 - 49999
• Class IV Town - Population of 10000 - 19999
• Class V Town - Population of 5000 - 9999
• Class VI Town - Population below 5000

iv. Urban Agglomeration:
Sometimes tow or more towns may be contiguous to each other, making it necessary to consider them together for studies on urbanisation in the area. In some other cases there are large railway colonies, university campuses, port areas, military camps etc., just outside the statutory limits of a town, but adjoining it. Though these areas may not themselves qualify to be treated as towns, it would be realistic to treat them as urban. Such areas are termed as ‘outgrowths’ (O.G.) and may cover whole or part of a village. The above two types of contiguous urban areas are called ‘Urban Agglomerations’. An urban agglomeration may comprise:

• A town and contiguous outgrowths; or
• Two or more towns and their outgrowths, if any; all of them forming a contiguous spread of urban area.

Classification of Municipalities in Gujarat

• Class A Municipality - Population of 100000 and above
• Class B Municipality - Population of 50000 - 99999
• Class C Municipality - Population of 25000 - 49999
• Class D Municipality - Population of 15000 - 24999

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