Fragmented Planning and Splintered Urbanism

A Spatio-temporal Study of Ghaziabad

Abstract

This paper engages with debates on the transformation of towns near metropolitan cities in India. Through the case study of Ghaziabad, a city located in the eastern periphery of Delhi in Northern India, we examine the interconnections between industrialisation, urbanisation, and planning. Our paper maps the trajectory of urban morphological changes in Ghaziabad and its development from a town to a city in the post-independence period. Our purpose is to historically document the urban transition in the region of Ghaziabad by focusing on the continuous shift in economic activities, the expansion of planned and unplanned areas, and the incessant flow of poor and middle-class migrants to the city. In doing so we argue that though the planning process in Ghaziabad looks congruous from a distance, yet in reality it is fragmented to the core, resulting in dispersed industrialisation and the formation of a mosaic of residential segregation. The paper also discusses how Delhi’s urbanisation and planning interventions have reconfigured the socio-urban changes in Ghaziabad. The growth of an urban agglomeration under the shadow of a metropolitan city, apart from influencing its salient identity, has also hindered its independent growth in comparison to other satellite cities like Faridabad, Gurgaon, and Noida.