Impact of Globalization on Employment Distribution and Urban Mobility in Delhi: Fid-Bau Portal

Impact of Globalization on Employment Distribution and Urban Mobility in Delhi

Bhandari, Kirti / Black, John / Hayashi, Yoshitsugu

Delhi has been identified as one of the fastest growing cities of the world. With an estimated 13.8 million people in Delhi in 2001, an overwhelming 93% was urban. The forces of globalization are playing a dominant role in shaping the urban form where the city limits are expanding to accommodate increasing job opportunities. The “Special Economic Zone” policy may be considered the government's response to globalization. Rapidly urbanizing towns at the periphery of the National Capital Territory (NCT) are Gurgaon, Faridabad and NOIDA (New Okhla Industrial Development Authority). Supported by quality infrastructure, these zones attract a large Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Master plans have proposed the integration of these townships, which are a part of the National Capital region (NCR) to the NCT. However strict non-adherence to these plans has led to haphazard growth within the NCT and NCR. The significance of this paper is to show results from a combination of institutional analyses together with empirical investigations of spatial data to assess urban development outcomes in Delhi. The study tries to assess the changes in the urban form, commuting patterns and accessibility which have resulted due to the forces of globalization in Delhi. Results indicate that the people working in the satellite towns prefer to choose to live there, thereby resulting in shorter trips in these zones. Whereas the gravity type land use accessibility indices indicate that the city centre produces the highest accessibility which decreases towards the periphery for office stock, which subsequently increases in the satellite townships. However, due to the policies of relocation of industries to the periphery, these towns exhibit high accessibility for industrial locations.