Introduction Location and Access Geographical features

ACCCRN – City Vulnerability Assessment Report 25 4 INDORE – CITY PROFILE

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Location and Access

Indore is the most prominent city of Madhya Pradesh State and the district headquarters of the district. It is situated on the western part of the Malwa Deccan Plateau on the banks of two small rivers, the Khan and the Saraswati. Indore is 17 th among the 23 million plus cites of India enumerated in the 2001 Census. The city is situated on fertile Malwa Plateau located at 22 43’N latitude and 76 42’E longitude. The city is located at an average altitude of 550mts above MSL. The city is linked by three modes of transportation. viz. road, rail and air. Regional road pattern fans out in all directions connecting nearby industrial areas and towns within the district.

4.3 Geographical features

The city has a municipal area of 134 sq.km and lies in Khan river basin. The river and its tributaries traverse through the densely populated areas of the city. The city occupies a relatively flat plateau having a gentle slope towards the north. The hinterland of the city is scattered with some hillocks. To the southeastern side is the Pipaliyapala tank and towards the southwest is the Sirpur tank. The highest and the lowest contour levels in the city are 590m and 540m respectively. The city has a black cotton soil varying in depth from place to place. The cross section at various places show an order of soft soil till 5ft, hard soil still 15ft, red soils till 30ft and after this the rocky terrain extends upto 100ft below. Climatic Conditions Indore has a transitional climate between a tropical wet and dry and a humid sub-tropical climate. Three distinct seasons are observed, summer, monsoon and winter. Summers start in mid-March and can be extremely hot in April and May. The highest temperature recorded was 48 °C in 1994. Average summer temperature may go as high as 42-44°C but humidity is very low except during rainy seasons. Due to Indores location on the southern edge of the Malwa Plateau, a cool breeze also referred to as Shab-e-Malwa in the evenings makes summer nights quite pleasant. The monsoon season starts in late June, with temperatures averaging around 26 °C 79 °F, with sustained, torrential rainfall and high humidity. The average rainfall is 900mm with high coefficient of variability. Winters start in mid-November and are dry, mild and sunny. Night temperatures average about 4-15 °C 40-59 °F, but can fall close to freezing on some nights. In summer, temperature can be sometimes as high as 45-48 °C and in winters it can be as low as 2° - 3°C. Off late it has been observed that the summer season is extended for couple of weeks and the pleasant cool breeze in the evenings has faded over. The city is also witnessing sudden downpours leading to floods and water logging in the city. Natural resources and issues of access Water is among one of the main resource of the city. The first water supply system in Indore used natural water tanks At Bilawali until the Yashwant Sagar dam on river Gambhir was constructed in 1939. As per the City Development Plan of Indore, Yashwant Sagar dam now provides IMC with 27MLD of water in addition to 4MLD from the Bilawali Tank. Ground water supplies about 13 MLD through 1,550 motorized tube wells. ACCCRN – City Vulnerability Assessment Report 26 The most important source of water for the city of Indore is the Narmada Water Supply Project which is pumped about 70 kms. The estimated water availability for the city is of the order of 199.5 MLD at maximum and 171 MLD at minimum to serve over 1.5 million population. The actual situation is much less with estimated per capita availability of around 84 lpcd at maximum and 72 lpcd at minimum. The water supply in the city is unsatisfactory on account of high losses and inefficiencies in the system Dzikus, 2003. The growth of urban population, estimated at 4 to 5 per annum, has significant influence on water demand and exerting pressures on the available water sources, leading to over exploitation of groundwater resources. Around 68 per cent of city’s population receives water between one or two hours every alternative day, while the other areas augment supplies by private water tankers and government and private borewells. The market forces have grown stronger replacing the usual mechanism of water provision by the municipality. Unaccounted for water UFW as per IMC is not less than 50. This takes into account of leakages and wastage, losses in transmission, unauthorized connections etc. The Narmada Phase III is under implementation and the project is expected to increase Narmada Water Supply to a tune of 365MLD from current 180MLD. The project is planned ambitiously and the CDP report of Indore states that the project planned will fulfill the requirement of the population of 2039, whereas it is hard to believe the projections-given the current trends in water management by the stakeholderscitizens and the overriding climate change phenomena. If one observes the current issues, the water supply problem in the city of Indore is attributed more to the lack of infrastructure and current management practices rather than lack of water availability Dzikus, 2003.

4.4 Demography