The Gujarat government has proposed building five new satellite cities around its major urban centres in a significant move in the development of the urban areas. The project is driven by the Urban Development Department of the state (UDD) and is meant to control the high rate of urban development, congestion of the already existing urban centres, and facilitate a balanced development at the regional level.
It is proposed that the satellite towns shall be constructed in and around Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Surat, Vadodara, and Rajkot. The sites that have been found to carry out the project are Sanand (Ahmedabad), Kalol (Gandhinagar), Savli (Vadodara), Bardoli (Surat) and Hirasar (Rajkot). All these will be under various Urban Development Authorities (UDA) of the major cities.
The state government has approved a preliminary budget of 50 crores for preparing master plans and initial infrastructural development. The implementation will involve a high-level committee with secretaries of major departments such as industry, finance, water resources and transport.
They said these satellite cities are being developed to handle the increased population and infrastructural strain of major cities in Gujarat. The last ten years were characterized by unprecedented growth in Ahmedabad, Surat, and Vadodara and have led to such issues as traffic jams, land rush, and housing overload. It is believed that the satellite cities will be well-planned extensions which will be capable of accommodating new residential, commercial and industrial areas with an increase in the quality of life.
The satellite cities will have developed transport systems, housing, green areas and industrial belts with good accessibility to the parent city by highways, ring roads and other means of transport. The government is looking to develop self-governing townships whereby citizens can work and live without necessarily relying on the main city to provide them with employment and other services.
The initiative has been received with welcome by the urban planning experts as a move to sustainable urbanization. They observe that when developed well, these cities can ease congestion of already available municipal infrastructure and help avoid urban sprawl.
Nonetheless, analysts have also warned that the success of the project will require it to be successful in the acquisition of land, implementation of infrastructure and affordability. The main factor to make these satellite towns thrive as colourful economic centres and not remote suburbs will be connectivity and access to the parent city.
Considering that Gujarat is already characterized by active industrial and urban policy, the introduction of five satellite cities becomes another step in the vision of the state’s development and economic growth with sustainable living.
