Monitoring urban growth pattern and its impact on Neighbouring villages: a case study on Rajarhat region, West Bengal

Urban growth is a worldwide phenomenon. It is not only a haphazard physical explosion of urban population but also manifests a disorderly and discontinuous development of urban place. Urban growth is such a process which takes place slowly or rapidly to occupy the adjacent land of a city or a town and brings about socio-cultural changes in the land use pattern, demographic features (population growth, literacy rate, occupational structure etc.) and transforms the economic livelihood of the people of the concerned area. It is very much interesting to note that the adjacent villages of an urban place are influenced by a number of factors associated with urban growth and these factors make considerable impact on the village life. The present study focuses on the nature of urban expansion in Rajarhat region during the time period from 1981-2001. Based on the proximity of the Urban Municipality (i.e. Rajarhat-Gopalpur Municipality) three villages were selected to study the pattern of urban expansion and there from identify the factor responsible urban expansion. This area is under Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) and Sector-V (IT Hub) area developed very rapidly. The study has indicated that the development of road transport in the ‘Rajarhat-Gopalpur Municipality’ and ‘Rajarhat-New Town’ area make an impetus for the rapid urban expansion during 1981-2001 though the region first experience urban growth in 1971. In addition, RS and GIS based analysis of the pattern of urban expansion over the demographic change and land use modifications has also indicated that urban growth mainly takes place linearly along the major roads in the study area.