Recent population estimates from 2018 have placed Delhi as the second most populous urban agglomeration, and it is set to become the most populous urban area by 2030 in the world. The region’s expansion is far from complete. The visible growth in the last decades is intuitively experienced by the city’s inhabitants and commuters who travel from nearby areas in the form of congestion. Also, in the last two decades, the growth of Metro Rail network has been a part of that visible expansion. At its inauguration in 2002, it symbolized a solution for easing the congestion of vehicles on Delhi’s roads, and it demonstrated the possibility of implementing a transportation system in India comparable to those in other rapidly growing economies. Since then, Delhi Metro Rail (DMR) has expanded to a network length of 389 kilometers with 285 stations. A larger legacy of DMR is in spurring similar projects in other Indian cities. Prior research examining the impact of DMR has speculated that its development strategy may have triggered new ways of deriving value from land and property markets and played a role in neighborhood transformation processes. Are these speculations about land use and property change indeed correlated with the rapid development of transit systems? Furthermore, are these impacts similarly seen in all parts of DMR's network?This dissertation empirically examines the magnitude of urban changes in the context of new transit development with a well-founded understanding that the announcement and construction of the new transportation systems are two critical junctures to understanding the process of spatial fragmentation and neighborhood transformation in emerging mega-urban regions. The research questions considered are: RQ1. How did various actors and decisions shape the trajectories of urban transportation development in Delhi? What is the role of Metro Rail development in producing a World-Class city? RQ2. How has the land cover and land use changed in the past two decades? What prominent patterns of land transformations can be seen from urbanization phenomena? RQ3. How do transportation and land development change land markets? What are the effects of proximity and access? In this study, I use a spatial and temporal approach to investigate the transportation-land connection framed around the development trajectory of DMR. I utilize multiple techniques, including remote sensing classification, data analysis and analysis of historical materials, and land market analysis to understand the making of this urban agglomeration. The main findings are as follows: First, the impact of transportation development is mixed. Peripheral cities have seen more land transformation due to metro rail development than the core (Delhi -NCT). Second, due to the ease of access to the land, cities in the study area have expanded horizontally outwards. Land built or absorbed in the urban boundaries has been derived from agricultural land holdings. Thus, the question of access needs to be revisited. Lastly, masterplans and State actors play a critical role in the land transformation process. Together, they have shaped the land use configurations in Delhi and its peripheries. This study contributes to the broader understanding of the process of transportation-led urbanization and the more-than-accessibility impact of metro-rail systems in shaping land systems. Findings from this study will be useful to understand the impact of mass rail transit systems, developed in the style of DMR, on other urban geographies in India. / Geography

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.