Regional urban centres

Regional urban centres play a positive and constructive role in the State's economy and spatial organization. An understanding
of the various facets of the. regional urban centres is, therefore, very important. In the present book, Dr. Kalpana Markandey has attempted a detailed analysis based on extensive survey of the leading towns of Andhra Pradesh, i.e, Hyderabad, Visakha-
patnam, Kurnool and Vijayawada. The study is three-forked: inter-regional, intra-regional and intra- city-- (a) The urban fields of
the regional urban centres have been delimited and a structural analysis of the demographic and socio-econom ic characteristics
of urbanization has been carried out within these fields in order to determine areas of greater cohesion with the regional urban
centres; (b) The internal structure of the regional urban centres studied to gain a more vivid picture of the intra-city demographic
and socio-economic correlates; (c) The State-wide linkages of the regional urban centres have been studied on the basis of their
interaction pattern involving an analysis of commodity flow, passenger flow and communication. The areas of greater functional
affinity with each of the regional urban centres in the State are thus discerned. The author has also made purposeful suggestions
for the attention of Regional Development Authorities.