Borders Grow as Old City Shrinks
CHENNAI: A recent study shows that the population in most core areas of Chennai city is decreasing — or at least growing only marginally — while the outskirts of the city are seeing a substantial rise in population. The study was conducted by a consultant appointed by the state government to analyse the city demographics.
According to the report exclusively accessed by City Express, many areas within the old city municipal limits, like Nungambakkam and Kodambakkam, saw a decrease in population between 2001 and 2011. The report was prepared to assist in formulating the transport systems for the city.
Among the outer areas, the southern suburbs along the IT corridor witnessed the highest growth in population — between 6 and 10 per cent. Except for a few areas like Minjur and Puzhal, most other suburban areas in the West and North saw only a slow or medium growth of less than 6 per cent in the decade ending in 2011.
The growth in the southern suburbs is mainly attributed to the development of IT hubs along the southern transit corridors and the surge in real estate activities. The report also showed that areas towards the West of Chennai Metropolitan Area, which includes Avadi and Ambattur, had witnessed medium-paced growth at a rate of three to six per cent.
The overall growth rate of the Chennai Metropolitan area in the decade is estimated at 2.5 per cent. But the areas outside the old city area (old city municipal limits) had a much higher growth rate of five percent.
Quoting forecasts, the report indicates that this trend of high growth in the areas outside the old city will continue for two decades before it stabilizes at a steady growth rate of less than two per cent.
Analysis of growth trends in the Old Municipal Corporation area has shown that some wards have experienced negative growth, especially in the core city area. The outer areas within city limits experienced relatively high growth with an annual growth rate of 0.6 - 2.8 per cent. The overall growth has been very low at 0.7 per cent in 2001-11. The population in Chennai Metropolitan area has grown from 90.44 lakh in 2011 to 98.27 lakh in 2015. The employment generation has also gone up and the city provides 47.92 lakh jobs in 2015 as against 43.93 lakh jobs in 2011.