ABSTRACT
One broad consequence of the factors has been a large and increasing crop of Indian twin cities that are both like and dramatically unlike their intranational counterparts elsewhere, indeed having more in common with cross-national twins. The twin-city idea has become an important way of thinking about urban planning, a potent symbol of modernity. Partly in consequence pledges about new twin cities ultimately benefiting all have become increasing features of party-political discourse at local, state and federal levels, thereby enhancing twin-city generation. The authors try to remedy some of that deficiency by drawing on the copious material available from public sources to assess: the context wherein twin cities arise; their characteristics and underpinning intentions; and as far as possible their impact and outcomes. Customary twins are necessarily very adjacent, their centres separated by a few kilometres and their peripheries either indistinguishable or marked by rivers.
