Chennai second next to Delhi when it comes to congestion

[1]

Chennai has emerged as the second highly-congested place next to Delhi in terms of population density — the city, with 4.68 million population, supports 13.30 per cent of the state’s urban population, Mr S. Gopala Krishnan, director of census operations, Tamil Nadu, told a press conference here on Tuesday.

While comparing districts on an all-India basis, Chennai district, with its congested municipal limits, has 26,903 persons per square kilometre and in case of northwest Delhi, 29,468 people reside in a sq km.

The reason for Chennai’s congestion is that though Mumbai and Kolkata are highly populated, they have expanded in the recent past unlike Chennai, he explained. Mumbai and Kolkata are behind Chennai with about 20,000-24,000 persons per sq km.

The number of villages has come down from 16,317 to 15,979 due to urbanisation and migration of the public.

The cause for migration could be ascertained only after evaluating the final data and take more than a year to study the related parameters. In 1951, Tamil Nadu had only 25 per cent of its population under urban cover, leaving 75 per cent to be villages. In 2011, it shot up to 48.45 per cent, leaving 51.55 per cent to reside in the rural pockets.

Kancheepuram has the highest growth rate in terms of urban population, while Kanyakumari has the highest proportion of urban population.

Tamil Nadu ranks third in rural-urban distribution next to UP and Maharashtra. The state has a total population of 7.21 crore in the 2011 provisional census with a rural population of 3.7 crore.

The population growth rate is 15.60 per cent, including 27.16 per cent in the urban areas and 6.49 per cent in the rural pockets. Ariyalur has the highest rural population.