2.2 Outline of the City
2.2.1 Historical Background
The origin of Bangalore City can be traced back to 1537 in the Late Shri Magadi Kempegowda era. The eastern part of the city was however developed by the British as the Civil and Military station early in the 19th Century. The Civil and Military station was developed for providing the primary needs of Cantonment, with public offices and housing accommodation for the British settlers. The two cities combined to form the present city when the British rule came to an end. For example, recreation facilities such as Golf course and Cubbon Park were developed between these two cities. They now serve as important lung spaces of the city.
Bangalore Municipality was established in 1862. The city and Cantonment area had separate Municipal Boards. The merger of two cities in 1949. The growth of the city was accelerated with the reorganisation of states in 1956 when the overall size of Mysore State of which Bangalore was the capital, was more than doubled by the inclusion of large part of area from neighboring states.
The size of Bangalore city has extended during 1901 - 1991 from 75 sq. kms to 200 sq. kms. In the same period its population increased from 0.23 million to 4.08 million. The establishment of a number of industries during 1941 - 51 resulted in a abnormal increase in population from 510 thousand to 991 thousand with an increase of 94% during one decade. This unabated sprawl of the city was caused by the lack of natural barriers as well as low density with singe story residential development.
2.2.2 Regional Setting
The impact region of Bangalore covers an area of 8,721 sq.kms within a 50 km radius from the city center. The total population as per 1991 census in this region is 6.7 million persons and the density of population is 763 persons per sq.km as compared to the state average density of 234 persons / sq.km. This area is having highest density of population.
The urban and rural population ratio is 31.5% and 68.5% respectively. The urban population is heavily concentrated in the Bangalore Metropolitan area. There are eight arterial roads leading from Bangalore City connecting the Taluk headquarters in the region and further to other urban centers. Electronics, engineering and sophisticated manufacturing industries are located within the Metropolitan area and along these arterial
