In 1825 the Britishers colonel Agnew laid down the main street of the town known as Bensley Road and approved the construction of houses and shops in a planned manner .At the same time the city also expanded in eastward direction. The road started by colonel Agnew in 1825 and completed by captain Smith in 1859, had just a few shops some 100 years ago. Today, it is an important commercial street named as Malviya Road, which connects the Great eastern road with Kotwali. In 1867 the municipality was created in Raipur. The Municipality was reconstituted in 1883,1903 and 1925-26 under the Central Provinces and Berar Municipality act of 1922 .In 1909 Gole Bazar was made by Colonel Twyford. In 1951 the total area of Raipur M.C. was 8 sq miles occupied by 16,823 residential houses. The area increased to 9.72 sq miles or 25.17 sq kms, while the number of occupied houses arose to 25,785 in 1961. Raipur was the seventh largest town of the Central Provinces with a population of 19119 in 1881, the number went up to 32114 in 1901 and now after hundered years the population is touching around 10 lakhs. PROCESS OF SPRAWL Although the Raipur city has grown over centuries in various phases. But in the present study its process of sprawl has been examined during 1970 and 2001, when it has been very rapid specially after its becoming the state capital. The process of sprawl has been discussed in three phases depending upon the availability of data and material. These are Phase I during 1971-81; phase II during 1981-1991and phase III during 1991-2001. A brief discussion of each phase is given below.
O.G. Outgrowth Although southern part had developed in past due to historic reasons but there was no major incentive for growth in this direction during the later period The main thrust of urban growth was towards the central part of the city where the market like cloth market of Pandritarai and Gudiyari, which are major centers for trade that primarily dealt with textiles and grocery, needed space. The area occupied by build up land in 1970 was 3596 hectare. The details of villages merged in 1971 are given in table. Period between 1981-1991 With the formation of Raipur Development Plan in 1976 for Raipur city the highest number of villages were incorporated. It was necessary to prepare a comprehensive plan for the projected population of almost 10 lakhs people. Thus large space was required for this purpose. Consequently, eight villages had surrendered their cultivated land and their peoples to the city, which increased by nearly more than 50 percent. The incorporation of these villages took place in 1977 but it was officially mentioned in 1981 census. When the eight villages merged in Raipur (M.C) partially and wholly are Kota, Lalpur, Mowa, Khamtarai, Telibandh, Chiprdih, Dungania, Hirapur, Pandritarai, and Dumartalab. The details are given in the table below The expansion of the city was in all direction but largely towards the south and the west. This was primarily the result of the concentration of industries, jobs and other services in B .S.P and Industrial growth center of Durg District
During late 1990’s the extension of urban sprawl of city was inhibited. In the northern direction the sprawl crossed Bhanpuri and reached to Rawabhat in east Jora. As observed the pull factors was the cement industry around Bhanpuri and Urla areas and poultry farms around Labhandih area.
The northwestern sector witnessed tremendous sprawl. It appeared to have merged with the township of Urla industrial center in coming decades. The area along the N.H-6 & State highway was already built up. Those that were still lying inbuilt were the plots layouts awaiting are likely to come under construction in a few years. The southern direction has still not seen much sprawl. However, it was observed that the density of population has increased considerably. People returning from metropolitan cities including the capital of India, after Raipur emerged as state capital, had removed their building and have mostly constructed double storied houses. Some of them were bonafide residents of the region in the past. The extreme south is also appeared unattractive for the reason that one had to commute for old city to developed urban area to meet his needs and wants. This was a unique example of obscure sprawl due to social factors.  |