Mumbai most populous, Delhi largest urban spread

Blore almost as big as Chennai, says preliminary Census data

The official statement claims New Delhi to have a population of 1.63 crore and Kolkata with 1.41 crore, thus making all the metros of the country India’s “mega-cities”.

But when it comes to urban agglomeration or spread as an extended city - that comprises built-up area of central and any suburbs or linked continuous urban areas -  Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) outnumbers any other sub-urban gatherings. The NCR, with the inclusion of Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida and Ghaziabad, has a total population of over 2.17 crore.

This is higher than the Mumbai Metropolitan Region with a population of 2.07 crore, which incorporates areas of Thane, Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Bhiwandi and Panvel, spread in Mumbai’s adjoining districts of Thane and Raigad.

Among other major cities, the Silicon City-Bangalore with an urban agglomeration population of 8.72 million (excluding Hosur) is now almost as big as Chennai with a population of 8.91 million (excluding Kancheepuram).

Hyderabad, which was slightly bigger than Bangalore in 2001, has now grown to become the sixth largest city with a population of over 7.74 million, ranking after Chennai and Bangalore.

The other important cities in the top list include Ahmedabad with a population of over 6.35 million, Pune with over 5.04 million, Surat with 4.5 million, and Jaipur with 3.07 million, pipping Kanpur in the top 10 slot. The cities which narrowly missed being included in the million-plus population list included: Bareilly (979,933), Mysore (983,893), Tirupur (962,982), Solapur (951,118), Hubli-Dharwad (943,857), Salem (919,150), Aligarh (909,559) and Gurgaon (901,968).

The preliminary results of Census-2011 were released by the Registrar General of India, an official statement here said on Monday.