ABSTRACT
Visakhapatnam or Vizag is situated on the east coast of India, midway between Calcutta and Madras. It is the second largest city in the state of Andhra Pradesh and it ranks twenty-first in size and first in growth rate in the country. Between 1971 and 1991 its population trebled from 360,000 to over 1 million. This rapid increase reflects the city’s growing importance as a major port and industrial centre, as well as the poverty of the surrounding rural areas from which many migrate. The city lies between the hills and the sea, a situation that has created a constraint on land. Population density is high, with 30,000 people per square kilometre in most of the city. The premium on land and the building boom, dominated by private builders, is rapidly turning the city into a mass of high rise blocks into which businesses and upper and middle class families are moving. Even so, housing for employees of the railway, port authorities, government departments and public sector industries occupies a major portion of residential land in Vizag.
