Land information of Durgapur area with focus on industrial usage
Description of the study area
Durgapur is situated in Burdwan district of West Bengal on the northern bank of river Damodar within 160 kms WNW of Calcutta. Originally Durgapur was a large village surrounded by several smaller villages. Dense sal and mixed jungle covered much of the area north of the Grand Trunk Road where Durgapur is located. We find references to the place in the writings of Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay (‘Devi Chaudhurani’) and also in the Gazetteer of Burdwan District written in 1910 by Paterson. Subsequently Durgapur became a small town, bounded to the north by the G.T. Road and to the south by Howrah (Calcutta) – Delhi railway line before. Due to its favourable position in respect to raw materials (good quality iron ore, coal and lime deposits), fresh water supply and easy transport for labour and market it was chosen for setting up a number of large industries. It was a good choice for setting up of major industries like iron and steel, thermal power, cement, chemicals, machinery and other allied industries. It was mainly during the Second Five Year Plan that major industrial surge came upon Durgapur; it used to be called at that time ‘the Ruhr of India’. Along with the industries, industrial townships were created and commercial activity began to cater to their needs. In this way Durgapur grew into a city. Some of the pre-existing villages remained in place (e.g. Kalipur, Faridpur, Palasdiha) while others (like Waria, Sujara, Mejidih, Banagram, Dhunara) had to be shifted to make room for large industries like Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP), Alloy Steel Plant (ASP), Durgapur Projects Limited (DPL), Durgapur Thermal Power Supply (DTPS) etc. The people of these latter villages were rehabilitated. Then small slums grew up in connection with the industries and some more grew around the townships catering to the domestic needs. Tribal (Santhal) villages still exist on the outskirts of the city. In recent years Durgapur has become a municipal corporation (with population of 4,15,986 in 1991 and 5,00,578 estimated in year 2000 over an area of 154 sq. kms.). The municipal area covers 40 mouzas, which is now divided into 43 wards each having roughly 10,000 people. Geographically the Tropic of Cancer (23o30’N) passes through the city, and the city limit stretches from 87o12’E to 87o20’E on the northern banks of river Damodar. This river is intercepted at the eastern end of Durgapur at Durgapur Barrage. Geologically the area is significant as it marks a part of the boundary region between the Gondwana basin and the Bengal basin (Ref. Geo-resource map of Barddhaman District, GSI 1998). The prominent features are the Durgapur beds (feldspathic sandstone) of Jurassic age, followed by other shale and sandstone beds with coal seams. Lateritised outcrops are common in this area from which ‘murrum’ is excavated in many places. ‘Murrum’-excavation leaves behind a desolate landscape. The elevation of the land is highest (120 metres above sea level) at and around the outcrops of Durgapur beds in the central and north western parts of the city, whereas the banks and shoals of Damodar river are at 55 to 60 masl. Most of the area is gently undulating.
The Grand Trunk Road (now NH2) runs through the place since the time of Sher Shah Suri and the Electrified broad gauge railway lines (Eastern Rly.) run parallel to it to the south. Most of the industries of the area are located between these two transport lines and few to the south of the railway line. North of the G.T. Road is mostly residential and commercial area. Agricultural, forest and barren lands lie mostly at the periphery of the city. Unfortunately the industrial surge is much reduced now due to various factors.
In connection with identifying new sites for industries, it is important to note that there are large vacant areas, which are neither forested nor intensively cultivated at present. Additionally, large areas of the closed industries now lie unused in a dilapidated condition. These could be put to use first.
The study area of the project covered an area somewhat larger than the municipal corporation area. This is so because whole physical entities, like sub-basins, were covered; thus parts of the neighbouring blocks of Andal and Kanksa were also included.
Methodology and Data
In order to incorporate all possible land information in every part of the city a scale quite larger than that of topographical maps (1:50,000) was required. Yet the merging of over 60 cadastral or mouza maps at 16” to a mile (1:3960) would create an excessively large map and database, which would be too large for the project infrastructure to handle. Therefore maps of intermediate scale at 4” to a mile (1: 15,840) were selected. Original Police Station (PS) maps and Outline Development Plan of ADDA (Asansol Durgapur Development Authority) were used to form the base map for the study. Longitudes and latitudes were drawn at 2’30” interval to mark the registration points at their intersections. Features like water bodies, vested lands and paths were incorporated from P.S. maps in consultation with mouza maps. These provided good ground control points and location reference for field survey.
Satellite imagery (IRS) of June 1998, August 1999 and February 2000 were used for making a landuse class map by visual interpretation. This was enlarged to fit the 1:15,840 scale base maps. Thus polygons of apparently similar landuse types were derived. Whereas, for the congested places within the city, plans obtained from ADDA or the industries at 1:3960 scale, were used so as to incorporate each commercial, residential, institutional or industrial sector. This process could have been done much more efficiently with GIS software, which was unfortunately not available. Finally intensive field survey was carried out in all seasons to check on each polygon derived from remote sensing or from plans of other organisations. The ponds and paths were used as control points for making corrections after field survey. In this manner the final and actual landuse map (at 1:15,840 scale) was prepared, which has at least 90% accuracy. The scheme and codes used for landuse are discussed in the next section.