The Growth of Peri-urban Settlement

The physical boundaries of urban built-up areas often do not coincide with their administrative boundaries. Usually these urban built up areas are extended into the rural landscape, beyond the administrative boundaries of the urban areas changing the appearance of the rural landscape to look like that of the urban. Such areas form a zone of diffusion between the city and the rural areas. Located close to the city but having some rural characteristics this zone is referred to as peri urban areas. Savar Thana is such an area, which has location and physical advantages to grow as a peri urban township of over populated Dhaka city because its influences and linkages are spread over a broader region and it has good communication facilities. Now in respect of Dhaka, peri urban areas have rapidly developed into haphazard unplanned urban like settlements, at the edges of municipal boundaries mainly on customary land known as Khas Land, as a result of individual initiatives to subdivide land and construct structures ahead without following any formal planning regulations.