Demography, City Growth and trends, Economic base

ACCCRN – City Vulnerability Assessment Report 70

5.3 Demography, City Growth and trends, Economic base

The City of Surat has rapidly grown since 1960’s and has seen growth in the terms of population as well as industry and the pressure on resources. The city area has also expanded with time major expansion happening in 2006 and presently covers around 326.515 sq km while, the projected population of the city in 2009 is 4,523,022 SMC, 2009. The actual population may exceed these figures, especially because of the rapid development in the Surat Metropolitan Region. Like any other urban city in India Surat too has its own share of slums which have developed with the city. FIG. 24 : POPULATION AND DECADAL GROWTH OF SURAT Source: SMC, 2009 The decadal growth of the city population as evident in Fig 24 was maximum in the period of 1931-41. For two decades after that city show a decrease in the decadal growth, and starting at 1961, the positive trend continued till 1991 before ending lower during the period of 1991-2001. Surat city has seen an unprecedented growth in last four decades recording one of the highest growth rates in the country and a 10-fold population rise. The City now ranks as the 9th largest city in the country. Coupled with this the spillover of population into periphery has also been observed. From time to time jurisdictional limits of SMC have also been extended to include the outgrowth. At present SMC area is about 112 Sq. Kms. There are about 6.50 Lakh people 2001 residing in the immediate periphery of the city. Table 27: Surat Municipal Growth Statistics Area and Population Sr. No Description 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 1 Area sq.km 8.18 8.18 33.85 55.56 111.16 112.27 2 Population 223182 288026 471656 776583 1498817 2433785 3 Growth Rate - 29.05 63.75 64.65 93 62.38 4 Density 27,284 35,211 13,934 13,977 13,489 21,677 Source: CDP Surat The fact that the growth rate of slum population was always higher than the city population growth indicates that low income immigrants were a dominant factor in city growth. It also indicates that housing demand was higher than supply. This trend seems to have been ACCCRN – City Vulnerability Assessment Report 71 reversed since 1990s with large investments in weaker section housing and also relocation of slums along with slum growth of peripheral areas beyond the city limits. The early development of slums in Surat was not mainly from the pull factor as is the story with many of the urban cities and Class-I and Class-II towns but it is more to do with the “push” factor from the villages, where the size of land holdings and the need for alternate employment pushed the population from the villages to look for employment in Surat Das, 1998. The major slum population in the city consists of people from Semiarid and arid regions of Kachchh and Saurasthra Gujarat, Khandesh region of Maharashtra, Orissa and parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Rests of the states have very little proportion in the total population of the slums. As is apparent from Table 27, the increase in the growth rate of the population of the slums 1973 onwards has always been higher than the population of the city as a whole the period from 1992-2001 being an exception and this has continued to grow over time. The extending of the city limits to 326.5 sq km in 2,006 has changed the population profile of the city and this will need further analysis. City growth: Surat city area before 1961 was only 8.12 sqkm, while in 2009 it had expanded to 326.5 sqkm. The oldest part of the city developed in the area between the train station and the area known as Athwa lines. Since the 1990s, most of the new development including the most desirable location for the citys burgeoning middle and upper class is the area between the Athwa lines and Arabian Sea. Since the inception of Surat Urban Development Authority SUDA in late 70s, the City is growing at a rapid pace; though the development in the peripheral areas was not that rapid until 2001. Population growth rate between 1991 and 2001 did not result in the horizontal urban sprawl; on the contrary, it densified the core city areas, which were part of the Municipal Corporation. Surat, like other industrial towns with labor intensive employment opportunities, has grown very fast over the last five decades especially with the textile sector and the diamond sector providing ample opportunities for the migrant population coming to the city. The diamond sector started picking up in 70s when the low wage rate and other problems shifted the trade from Mumbai to Surat. The city claims to be zero unemployment city, which is to true to a great extent due to demand for labour across the various sector of industry.

5.4 Economic Base of Surat