Planning the Peri-Urban Expansion: A Case of Ring Road of Bhubaneswar, Capital Region, Odisha

Abstract

Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha and one of India’s most significant planned cities, is facing a development paradox: while its core has been shaped by decades of master planning, its peri-urban periphery is expanding rapidly and chaotically, driven by market forces far outpacing the reach of statutory governance. The city’s spatial footprint has grown by approximately 89.7% between 2010 and 2025, absorbing surrounding villages and spilling into the rural hinterland of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) jurisdiction. This unmanaged edge growth, which now accounts for nearly 68.3% of all new construction in the BDA region, is creating a fragmented urban landscape characterized by acute infrastructure deficits, governance vacuums, and environmental vulnerabilities. The research concludes that the Capital Region Ring Road represents a pivotal juncture for Bhubaneswar — a moment when the choice between reactive development and proactive planning will determine the city’s sustainability and livability for decades to come. The Land Pooling Scheme, implemented within a reformed governance architecture, offers a fiscally viable, legally grounded, and socially equitable mechanism to transform uncontrolled peri-urban sprawl into planned, serviced, and productive urban extensions. This thesis provides a replicable model for peri-urban management applicable to rapidly growing Tier-2 cities across India.