Land re-organisation in relation to roads in an Indian city

Accessibility plays an important role in land-use change or re-organisation, especially in and around settlements. Indian cities are strongly dependent on roads for transportation. The road network is so important in India that the development and growth of several cities stemmed from their location along major roads. Competition for accessible sites is strong, and the land-use patterns of Indian cities are highly dynamic. This study examines the role of accessibility in the re-organisation of urban land and focuses on Saharanpur, which is a Class I city (population of 100,000 and above) of western Uttar Pradesh (India). It traditionally had an agrarian-dominated population, but lately because of the emergence of several industries, the city has lost its agrarian fabric and more and more of its population are now quitting the agrarian sector and switching to the secondary and tertiary sectors. This development in the secondary and tertiary sectors is attracting migrants not only from the cityʹs hinterland but also from longer distances. The result is a massive expansion of the city as well as re-organisation of land. The study is based on remotely sensed data, processed in a GIS environment using ILWIS software.