Paper short abstract:

Urban sprawl has embraced Lucknow metropolis. Whether the city scales new heights with skyscrapers or expands its waistline with slums depends on the diet of migrants with their varied skill sets. The paper scrutinizes the urbanization trends of Lucknow and its consequences.

Paper long abstract:

Urban sprawl has tightly embraced the City of Nawabs. From a meager population of 10 lakhs spread across 9.17 sq. kms. in 1980s, the population and the area expanded to 45 lakhs and 45.5 sq. kms. respectively in 2011. One of the major reasons for this upward trend has been migration.

It is widely known that whether the city will scale new heights with sky scrapers or expand its waistline with chaotic unplanned slums depends on the diet of migrants with their varied levels of skills amongst other reasons. According to Master Plan 2021, there are 241 illegal colonies and 81 illegal industries in the residential areas of Lucknow. Thus, a new social strata has emerged causing hindrance to the merging of urban-rural communities. As the 2 lakh migrants attempt to secure jobs as secondary and tertiary workers, the authors observe the stark difference in the quality of lives of the urban rural migrants.

In the paper we analyze the reasons for this increasing mobility to the banks of Gomti river while also presenting the maps of the changing morphology of the city over the past 5 decades and discuss further projections. Skill building programs, benefits and compensation schemes for rural immigrants and ailing farmers are also presented as we attempt to extrapolate the maximum socio-economic benefits in the aftermath of the presented migratory trends in the capital of the most populous state of India.