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Today, India still remains a rural agricultural country although the share of urban population has also increased. But these figures do not tell the whole story. There are evidences that urban growth is dispersed and urban sprawl promotes the spread of urban land use into the rural-urban fringe. The book investigates the land transformation and the driving forces which were influencing the land transformation. The present study was done on peri urban interface (PUI) of Aligarh city, a relatively small city, but as other north Indian cities, it is also expanding rapidly. Moreover, it too is surrounded by a populous rural area with productive and rich agricultural hinterland. Such conditions give rise to many conflicts and mutually beneficial complementarities in the rural and urban spheres. The result shows that the demand for land is high. This results in informal urban development fulfilling the requirements of many of the city's residents. Every piece of land is a tradable commodity, and the pursuit of short-term profits is the predominant ethic. The actors in PUI are strong because it is characterized by intermixing of rural and urban activities and interests as well as the number of actors are greater than in any other area.

This book presents a detailed study on Aligarh's urban fringe, focusing on the livelihood of the villagers who have lived there for generations, and on that of the migrants residing in the villages. As a Class-I city, located in the most populated state (Uttar Pradesh) of India, Aligarh has gained in importance due to its proximity to the national capital (New Delhi) and Uttar Pradesh's industrial cities (Kanpur and Ghaziabad). The 2011 census showed that of the total population of the district, 33.1 per cent was urban (872,575 residents). Projections by the Town and Country Planning Department suggest that the city will have some 1.2 million inhabitants and there will be a need for another 64,000 houses. Thus, the city will expand extensively into its urban fringe, which is expected to entail large-scale transformations. The expansion of the city will significantly influence nearby villages in terms of land use and population, both physically and socio-economically

This book presents a detailed study on Aligarh's urban fringe, focusing on the livelihood of the villagers who have lived there for generations, and on that of the migrants residing in the villages. As a Class-I city, located in the most populated state (Uttar Pradesh) of India, Aligarh has gained in importance due to its proximity to the national capital (New Delhi) and Uttar Pradesh's industrial cities (Kanpur and Ghaziabad). The 2011 census showed that of the total population of the district, 33.1 per cent was urban (872,575 residents). Projections by the Town and Country Planning Department suggest that the city will have some 1.2 million inhabitants and there will be a need for another 64,000 houses. Thus, the city will expand extensively into its urban fringe, which is expected to entail large-scale transformations. The expansion of the city will significantly influence nearby villages in terms of land use and population, both physically and socio-economically.

The present article attempts to show how distance from the urban centre plays an important role in transformation of infrastructure in the peripheral area of cities which is termed as urban fringe of Aligarh city. The distributional pattern of the indicators of infrastructure shows that their values decline along as we move from the city towards the peripheral area of an urban fringe. As we move from the centre of the city, the infrastructure facilities decline with the increase in distance. The nature of the urban fringe varies considerably according to the level of urbanisation, the economy and the geographical location from the urban centre. It is a common understanding that urban growth not only impacts natural and built environment but it also influences infrastructural structure in the urban fringe. Urbanisation offers livelihood choices for people in the urban fringe and also provides them better access to urban services and infrastructure.

In Indian context