Transformation of Urban Structure and Emergence of Higher-Order Commercial Areas- Case of Ahmedabad, India

Abstract

The rise of big cities with rapid population growth is turning prominent in India’s urbanization scenario. With large number of population getting added at rapid rate, the large cities have observed significant spatial expansion and transformation of urban structure to polycentric one. City of Ahmedabad that evolved from medieval Walled City to now having around 7 million population has an evident ring-radial urban structure expanding around 10-12 km from its historic nuclei in all directions. In the process, agglomerations of higher-order commercial activities that serve a large part of city, account for large no. of jobs and play important part in physical and economic functioning of the metropolis have emerged at favorable locations. This paper studies relative significance and development characteristics of three important Higher-Order Commercial Areas (HOCAs) of Ahmedabad. The learning shall be useful for integrating existing HOCAs and facilitating development of new HOCAs through comprehensive planning.