How An Urban Society Develops- With The Foundation Of A Housing

HOW AN URBAN SOCIETY DEVELOPS

WITH

THE FONDATION OF A HOUSING

- by Arin Ghosh

IIIrd year B.Sc. Economics (Hons.)

B.B. College

Asansol

To discuss the process of urbanization we first need to know what urbanization is or what

does it means? To be specific, there is no particular definition of urbanization to follow.

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary the word 'Urban' means - "the

process of building town or cities or make them larger".

But what drives urbanization? Why men are centralized in a specific area?

Why does a town become larger & larger?

If we compare the income structure of a city with that of a village, we will see that

there is a presence of huge income difference. The opportunities are also greater at cities

than country sides - whether it is social or economical. So it is not that hard to imagine

that people would always try to maximize their level of satisfaction. Hence they rush to

towns in units. Commonly the migrants would first settle themselves in the city outskirts

and consequently the radius of the town increases. In this way the urbanization follows.

Our present study will take into account a case study in Asansol to this end.

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I choose my own neighborhood known as 'Purbasha Housing Complex' for my

study. Purbasha Housing Complex is situated at the eastern edge of Asansol town. It was

a dense forest merely 12-14 years ago and now there is a housing complex standing today

agog with the men & activities. It goes without saying that the housing complex gave

refuges to new shelters. What made them settle here is our question. Our paper tries find

out the answers on the basis of the interviews.

* A SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE PLACE:-

It has been said earlier the entire place was covered by dense woods and there

were no inhabitants. There was only an L.P.G. gas godown and another small scale

ceramic factory.

The first which was built here, is owned by the

former Asansol Municipality Corporation's

(A.M.C.) Chairman Mr. Manik Chowdhury. It is

noteworthy that this house had an important effect

in developing human habitants here at this area.

The Purbasha Housing Complex started building

around 1993- '94 . Civil contractor was Mr. Tapas Ghose from Eureka Construction and

Developers. Currently there are almost 150 families residing in this area.

* WHERE DO THE MIGRANTS COME FROM:-

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The site, Purbasha Housing Complex is situated amidst the rich coal belt of

Asansol - Ranigunj area. Because of this, there are numerous small dispersed E.C.L. coal

mines and therefore, localities in this area. Chanda, Ningha, Satgram, Damra, Tirat,

Kalipahari, Benali are few among those. It has been seen that 60% of the total migrants

of this colony are from these suburban areas. There are also few servicemen and

businessmen who opt to stay at

this complex. The numbers of

retired servicemen (mainly from

the railways and the E.C.L.) are

also not ignorable.

* SPECIALITY OF

THIS PLACE:-

Earlier this area was sequestering. That is why the prices of plots were very cheap

at the first half of the last decade. This site is at a beautiful place amidst the green and

free from the hustle- bustle of city rush. To the western side of this complex, there is a

small circular garden popularly known as the 'Golbagan'. This place is directly

connected to the by the G.T. Road, only 50 meters from the project side. Within one or

two minutes walk there are:

S.B.S.T.C. Bus and Express Bus stoppage (350 meters#)

Ushagram Boys' High school ( 100 meters#)

Ushagram Girls' school ( 120 meters#)

B.B. College- one of the biggest & important colleges of Burdwan University.

(200 meters#)

Three major commercial banks: ICICI, UBI & HDFC (350 meters#)

Two 24X7 ATMs (70 meters#)

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Two Nursing homes. ( 400 meters#)

A well built Doctor's complex (350 meters#)

Restaurant and Hotel (450 meters#)

A market complex

Two petrol pumps ( 70 meters#)

Ushagram Post Office ( 250 meters#)

Moreover, the proposed new railway station for Asansol suburban area is just 100

meters# away from this site.

So a glance would tell us that this area is