I T P I

ITPI JOURNAL
3 : 2 (2006) 29-35 JOURNAL
www.itpindia.org

REGIONAL PLANNING THROUGH THE DEVELOPMENT

OF A CENTRAL PLACE
S.R. KUKADAPWAR
Faculty in Civil Engineering, Government Polytechnic Nagpur
V.S. ADANE
Head, Department of Architecture and Planning, VNIT, Nagpur

ABSTRACT
The country has entered into the new millennium with alarming growth in urban population. Total towns and cities are projected to
increase to 6,000 by 2021, and 35 million plus cities in 2001 are expected to increase to 70 by 2021. Although development plans of
over 1000 towns have been prepared and are under implementation, but the urban system is not responding to the requirements of
migrant population. To overcome this problem and encourage such a planning process, which would promote sustainable urban
growth and regionally balanced settlement systems. It is argued that regional planning should aim at developing larger areas through
the establishment of growth foci and by linking the different central places, service centers, growth centers and growth poles in an
integrated manner.

1. INTRODUCTION should have a fairly homogeneous economic

The genesis of regional planning may probably be
traced from the Roman history during renaissance
period. The first conscious attempt at regional
planning date back to early sixteenth century
when great genius Leonardo da Vinci through his
sketches, demonstrated a scheme for draining the
Pontine Marshes (1514). Leonardo also gave a
bold proposal to make the Arno navigable by
building a broad canal to link Florence with Pistoia.
To define regions for planning purposes,
administrative convenience assumes paramount
importance. This is so because in actual
implementation of development plans, the existing
administrative boundaries can not be easily
ignored. In fact, it is generally these boundaries
that have to be accepted as demarcating the
threshold for different regions. Political realities and
availability of data for specific administrative units
makes this practically essential. However, in the
enthusiasm of practical (administrative)
considerations, one must not forget the
importance of the factors of homogeneity and
nodality, for neglect of these factors can introduce
distortions in the whole planning process. For
example, if functional linkages are ignored in
defining planning regions we might face a situation
where a region so defined includes nodes which
have greater interdependence with nodes outside
the region. Similarly, for ensuring proper
implementation of development plans, the region
structure, as well as topographical and social-
cultural homogeneity. Therefore, in actual
delineation of regions for planning purposes, it
becomes necessary to strike a balance between
the considerations of homogeneity, nodality and
administrative convenience.
Keeping these arguments in view, Keeble defined
a planning region to be an area that is large enough
to enable substantial changes in the distribution
of population and employment to take place within
its boundaries, yet which is small enough for its
planning problems to be viewed as a whole.
Klaassen believes that a planning region must be
large enough to take investment decisions of an
economic size, must be able to supply its own
industry with the necessary labor, should have a
homogeneous economic structure, contain at
least one growth point and have a common
approach to and awareness of its problems.
A comprehensive definition of a planning region
emphasizing the factors of homogeneity, nodality
and administrative convenience in a right
perspective is the one given be P.D. Malgavkar
and B.M. Ghiara:
Geographically, it should be a contiguous unit
though it could be sub-divided into plain, hilly
tracks, coastal belt, lake area, etc.;
 S.R. Kukadapwar / V.S. Adane / ITPI Journal 3 : 2 (2006) 29 - 35
The people of the region should have cultural
cohesiveness;
The region should be a separate unit for data
collection and analysis;
The region should have an economic
existence, which can be assessed from
statistical records;
It should be small enough to ensure local
peoples participation in its development;
It should be under one administrative agency;
It should not be too small; its geographical
size should be big enough to exploit resources
and avoid duplication (by way of partially used
capacity in neighboring region);
It should have fairly homogeneous economic
structure i.e. the variation in local proportions
of employment and output in agriculture
industry and services should be within a
narrow range;
It should have one or more growth points;
and
There should be common appreciation of local
problems and common aspirations and
approaches to their solutions; it should permit
and encourage competition but not rivalry or
apathy between one area and the other.
2. REGIONAL PLANNING: THE INDIAN
INITIATIVE
In India the significance of regional planning has
been realized many times at different levels of
planning. Spatial development for balanced
regional growth was stressed in initial national Five
Year Plans and accordingly, many regions were
identified for development purposes. However,
some of the emerging issues from past
experiences of our efforts towards obtaining
balanced regional development in the country and
which need exigent attention are:
Satisfactory delineation of the region
(geographic and administrative)
Distribution of infrastructure facilities and
services within a region
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Adequate functional linkages and access
Realistic economic and environmental
appraisal
Coordination between different agencies at
national, state and local levels
The 74th Constitution Amendment Act, 1992 has
given new turn to the planning process in India.
The Amendment requires constitution of a District
Planning Committee (DPC) and Metropolitan
Planning Committee (MPC). The coordinated
working of DPCs and MPCs will integrate the spatial
planning process of a region in a desirable manner.
This will facilitate coordination between the district
and metropolitan area. It should also provide a
more effective multi level planning environment
within the states. However, the efficient mechanism
and techniques for preparation and
implementation of regional plans in India is still a
distant dream.
2.1 Central Place Concept
Central place is the settlement, which provides
central goods and services not only for their own
residents but also for people living in nearby
clusters (complimentary region).Central place
exists because it performs essential services for
surrounding areas.
The study of central places for balanced regional
planning provides an understanding of the
functional linkages between different settlements
of the region. To carry out comprehensive
regional planning it is necessary for planners to
know the functional interdependence of various
settlements within the region. The central places
and central functions while preparing regional plan
gives ideas about functional capacity of individual
settlements and their influence on its hinterland.
Thus intra regional disparity can be easily identified
by earmarking poorly served or deprived areas.
2.2 Evolution of Central Places
Under uniform conditions, a central place is located
in the center of region. The close interaction
between central places and other clusters leads
to flow of man, money and goods. These flows
necessitate transport networks. The networks lead
 S.R. Kukadapwar / V.S. Adane / ITPI Journal 3 : 2 (2006) 29 - 35
to establishment of nodes that is a hierarchy of
settlements at different levels and thus complete
system develops. There are various factors, which
govern the growth of central places such as:
Physical factors
Cultural Factors
Transportation
Resource location
Political
Historical factors
Depending upon the central functions performed
by central places and the population served, they
can be classified as high order centers and low
order centers. High order centers stock a wide
array of goods and services and serve a large
population while lower order stock a smaller range
of goods and services and serve a small
population.
2.3 Central Place Functions
Functions performed by the central place for its
surrounding region are called central place
functions. These can be named as educational,
health, postal, administrative, banks, commercial,
transportation, telephone, police, entertainment,
tourism, etc.
3. REGIONAL IMBALANCES AND
REGIONAL PLANNING IN
MAHARASHTRA
The Late Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi in her
address to the National Development Council in
April 1969 recognized the seriousness of regional
imbalances when she said, We must also initiate
positive measures to reduce regional imbalances
as otherwise the tension caused by such
imbalances will inhibit the very process of
development.
Since independence as a result of five year plans,
the rich regions have become richer, the poor and
backward areas continue in the same state, and
regional distress have become accentuated,
leading to economic distress and political crisis.
Even in the developed state like Maharashtra, the
scenario of regional imbalance is also greatly
31
observed, where the regions like Vidarbha and
Marathwada remained socially, economically
undeveloped compared to the rest of the regions
especially from western Maharashtra. The
economic backwardness of the region gives rise
to social problems like farmer suicides and
unemployment.
It is well known that natural resources are not
uniformly distributed in the country and as per
present administrative boundaries. There are
areas, which have little or no resources, and there
are areas, which have an abundance of them.
Areas with high concentration of resources are
bound to achieve a higher level of economic
prosperity while areas with little or no resources
can not attain that level unless development in
the resources rich areas deliberately slows down
and some resources are transferred to resources
poor areas for inducing growth. This type of
planning balance will affect production efficiency
and loss of opportunities for the nation as a whole.
Similarly, past experiences have shown that
attempts to achieve regional balance by mere
distribution of new industrial and other projects
can not achieve the objective balanced regional
development.
But the strategy of Deliberate Promotion of Central
Places can go a long way in reducing both inter-
regional and intra-regional inequalities and promote
sustainable development. Once the different levels
in the hierarchy of human settlements are
integrated and different levels of growth foci
(service centers, growth points and growth
centers) located in them according to the
functional approach, regional disparities may
reduce appreciably.
Problems faced by nascent and emerging
metropolises of the newly formed Maharashtra
state attracted timely attention of state
government that appointed a committee under
the chairmanship of the Late D.R. Gadgil to seek
solutions to these problems and come out with
recommendations. On the basis of those
recommendations, the Maharashtra legislature
enacted Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning
Act, 1966, which added third tier to the planning
hierarchy in the state by enabling Government to
 S.R. Kukadapwar / V.S. Adane / ITPI Journal 3 : 2 (2006) 29 - 35
notify regions and to constitute regional planning
boards to prepare regional plans for addressing
such problems. The Act also included a chapter
on New Town enabling the state government to
constitute new development authorities to bring
into reality establishment of new towns identified
in the regional plans. The Act also provides for
special planning authorities for addressing
problems of undeveloped areas within the
jurisdiction of local authorities that in the opinion
of state government were in neglected conditions
or are being developed in an uncontrolled or
haphazard manner.
Under the provision of Maharashtra Regional and
Town Planning Act, 1966, the Maharashtra state
has taken a lead in Regional Planning and prepared
Metropolitan Regional Plans. The objective of the
regional plans was to regulate proper and balance
urban growth within and around the region
occupied or influenced by the major metropolises
of the state. However, the plans could hardly be
implemented since the Regional Planning Board
got dissolved immediately after the preparation
and sanction of the plans. The delineation of
metropolitan region and control of boundaries of
local authorities and implementing agencies could
not match. Some of the factors affecting the
balanced regional development in Maharashtra
State are:
Concentration of major urban centers in the
western part of the state
Disturbance in the occupation structure of
small and medium towns and villages
Inadequate facilities and services in rural areas
Irrigation projects and other development
activities causing adverse impacts and affecting
ecology of small settlements
Delay and shortcomings in plan preparation
and implementation process
Lack of public participation and awareness in
the planning process
4. CHANDRAPUR GADCHIROLI
REGION OF MAHARASHTRA
The study region is located in the eastern part of
Maharashtra. The region comprises of Chandrapur
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and Gadchiroli districts of Maharashtra. It covers
an area of 25,923 sq km. Keeping in view the
nature of study region, the following central
functions have been selected for calculating
centrality. These are education, medical, postal
service, telephone connection, banks, bus
transportation, administration, commercial facility
and police facilities.
4.1 Methodology
General phenomenon observed is that the
settlements with higher population attract the
people from nearby clusters by providing variety
of goods and services, which are lacking in the
clusters. Hence thick population settlements act
as a central place in that area. Based on this
hypothesis all the settlements above 10,000
persons in the region are considered as central
places.
Centrality is the measure of importance of a place
in the form of its functional capacity to serve the
needs of the people in the surrounding areas.
Centrality can be expressed qualitatively such as
low or high centrality, as well as quantitatively by
centrality values that are obtained by converting
the functional base of a place into scores on the
basis of frequency and importance of the function.
The method used for finding out centrality of
selected settlement is:
4.1.1 The Traditional Method
Centrality score of A settlement for function Y
= No. of units of function Y in A settlement x
weightage assigned to function Y.
Therefore, total centrality of A settlement
= Algebraic sum of centrality score for all
considered functions
= Y1 + Y2 + Y3 + . + Yn
Where Y1, Y2, Y3, Yn are various functions
considered for calculating centrality of a
settlement.
The weightage of different function is decided on
the basis of hypothesis of every settlement has
its own level on the basis of existing central function
and its service capacity.
 S.R. Kukadapwar / V.S. Adane / ITPI Journal 3 : 2 (2006) 29 - 35

The traditional method gives centrality of a D= Degree of influence

settlement in the form of certain quantity. The
A= Total area of the region
centrality of a settlement for its hinterland is
obtained by subtracting the centrality required Tc= Total centrality value of a settlement
for settlement itself from absolute centrality
C= Total centrality of all considered settlements
obtained by the traditional method. The resulting
in the study region
centrality obtained for excess population of
surrounding area is the true centrality of a R= Radius of circle indicating degree of influence.
settlement that proves the validity of that
particular town as a central place. By using the above model, the zone of influence
of each considered settlement is calculated as
To get the centrality for excess population i.e. shown in Table 1 and Fig 2.
surplus centrality, firstly, centrality required by
individual settlement to satisfy its own needs is 4. MAIN FINDINGS AND
calculated. This is calculated by fixing service OBSERVATIONS
capacity of each central function and applying it Comparison of required centrality with existing
to every settlement, and therefore the strength centrality shows that out of eighteen considered
of various functions existing in individual settlements in the study region (refer Table 1)
settlement is checked with respect to its
population. Table 1. Centrality Scores and Degree of
Influence of Settlements
On the basis of service capacity of various
functional units, the actual numbers of functional Sno. Name of Centrality Values Degree of
units required for a settlement against its Settlement Influence
population is calculated. The additional functions R Value
exist may be considered as functions serving in Km
population of surrounding area. Required Existing

The centrality required by individual settlement 1 Chandrapur 443 424 44.24

for its own population is calculated for all 2 Ballarpur 178 124 23.92
settlements above 10,000 persons and it is 3 Waroda 100 106 22.11
compared with existing centrality as shown
in Fig. 1. 4 Bhadravati 86 89 20.15
5 Gadchiroli 84 152 26.49
4.1.2 Sphere of Influence of Settlement
6 Bramhapuri 72 116 23.14
An attempt has been made to delimit the sphere
7 Ghugus 72 55 15.23
of influence of all considered settlements in study-
region to examine their functional relationship with 8 Wadsa 51 91 20.49
region. The sphere of influence constitutes 9 Rajura 49 86 19.92
economic and social zone of control.
10 Mul 44 67 17.58
A brief review of various methods used in 11 Armori 41 66 17.45
calculating the zone of influence indicates that use
12 Chimur 39 72 18.23
of empirical methods need intensity field work and
it consumes more time and labor. A mathematical 13 Sindewahi 36 61 16.78
model is used to find out zone of influence of 14 Nawargaon 36 42 13.92
considered settlements in study region.
15 Aheri 35 84 16.69
16 Nagbhid 35 56 16.08
17 Bhisi 35 39 13.42

where: 18 Chamorshi 35 60 16.50

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 S.R. Kukadapwar / V.S. Adane / ITPI Journal 3 : 2 (2006) 29 - 35
34

Fig. 1. Total Centrality of Settlements Fig. 2. Influence Zone of Settlements

 S.R. Kukadapwar / V.S. Adane / ITPI Journal 3 : 2 (2006) 29 - 35
In three settlements, required centrality is
greater than existing centrality. These
settlements are not able to satisfy the needs
of their own residents. Hence theoretically
these settlements are not acting as sustainable
central places since they are unable to cater
to the needs of surrounding region.
In three settlements, required centrality is
equal to the existing centrality. This means
that these settlements are just managed to
fulfill needs of own population and have very
less centrality and hence are acting as central
place at negligible level.
In the remaining twelve settlements, required
centrality is less than the existing centrality.
This means:
- These settlements have more functional
capacity than required for its own
population. This surplus centrality is
serving goods and services to the
surrounding area and hence is acting as
sustainable central places for the region.
- Out of settlements, which are acting as
central place, many are lacking in individual
functions to fulfill their own needs.
- The zone of influence calculated for
considered settlements covers almost all
area of western and central part of the
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region while eastern and southern part of
the region is out of reach of influence zone
of considered settlements (see Fig. 2).
- The pattern of influence zone shows the
imbalance in the study area as large area
of west part under double and triple
degree of influence which eastern and
southern part of region is deprived off from
service of single big settlement.
5. CONCLUSIONS
Procedure of regional plan preparation and
drafting of policy recommendations for the
achievement of balanced development of any
region should consider the followings. First,
appropriate delineation of the region with due
consideration for centrality of functional capacities
of various settlements should be done. Second,
the influence zone of large urban centers especially
beyond its municipal limits should be carefully
identified for planning purpose of the region. Third,
the regional plan policy should evolve a distribution
strategy for different central functions. Fourth,
the draft development plans of various urban
centers within the region should be in conformity
with the regional plan. Fifth, the regular monitoring
and review of plan preparation, implementation
and enforcement mechanism is strongly
recommended for the balanced regional growth,
development and prosperity of the region.
10. Development Management
11. Regional Planning and Development (Part -I)
12. Environmental Planning and Design
13. Advanced Transportation Planning
14. Network and Services
15. Environmental Impact Assessment
16. City and Metropolitan Planning and Design
17. Village Planning and Rural Development
18. Planning Legislation and Professional Practice
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