Introduction

Urbanisation refers to the shift of population into a par-ticular region in search of job and livelihood prospects. This leads to a gradual increase in population of a region. Unplanned urbanisation fuels the expansion of human populations away from central urban areas into low-density and usually mobility dependent communities, in a process called urban sprawl. Normally, the sprawl regions are devoid of basic amenities and infrastructure due to lack of planning as the planners were unable to visulise the likely growth. Thus, urbanisation is a result of concentration and diversion of resources to urban areas, extensive develop-ments, population migration in search of employment form rural to urban areas, etc. [1] leading to alterations in land use patterns, unsustainable developments, socio-economic, water and environmental related problems [2]. According to World Urbanisation Prospects [3], increasing connec-tivity has increased the urban population from 30% in 1950 to 54% in 2014 that is projected to grow to 66% by 2050.
China, India and Nigeria is estimated to account for 37% of the population. India currently with about 16.6% of the total world population, has the distinction of being the second most populous country in the world. As per Census of India [4] and Planning Commission of India [5], urban population in India has increased from 28% in 2001 to 31.7% in 2011. Number of urban areas in India increased by 44.5% between 2001 (6498) and 2011(9391) and expected to reach 60% by 2050.
Globalization and consequent opening of Indian Mar-kets during the early ninety’s has led to the rapid urbani-sation of landscape. Economic transformations coupled with infrastructure improvements in the last decade have opened up plenty of opportunities for improving basic necessities with the planned implementation in many Indian cities. Infrastructure development, fundamental to the overall development of human needs is a crucial and deciding factor for quality of life and also aids in deciding new factors for improvement and urban growth. There has been severe under investment in infrastructure develop-ment in developing world that most of the cities have an unplanned development in its periphery and the adjoining regions of the city. India has witnessed large-scale urban-isation in cities and towns since 1990’s as a result of industrialization, political, cultural and other socio-eco-nomic factors neglecting the necessary infrastructural reforms along with provision of basic amenities to the citizens in planned phased manner The recent thrust in development of infrastructure across India connecting cities, is through the development of industrial corridors linking two or more major cities and few hundred town(s), providing necessary connectivity in the last decade. This is expected to enhance the economic activities between cities and the government has started large scale funding towards the infrastructural reforms.
The industrial corridors have initiated a new era of urban growth connecting towns to cities. Industrial corri-dors are along the specific routes between geographical limits enabling faster movement of goods from source to destination i.e., efficient supply chain management. The corridors are generally planned along existing road net-work, train routes to stimulate industrial development through available human resources, reduced transport time and cost, quicker supply, etc. Globally, industrial corridor were designed with ‘‘world class infrastructure such as high-speed transportation (rail, road) network, ports with state-of-the-art cargo handling equipment, modern airports, special economic regions/industrial areas, logistic parks/transshipment hubs, knowledge parks etc. focused on feeding industrial needs, complementary infrastructure such as townships/real estate, and other urban infrastruc-ture’’ [6]. However, this would lead to the large scale land cover changes, which would pose a new web of challenges to the decision makers that includes meeting the needs of the rapidly growing population; catering to the increasing expectations for improved quality; range and access to services; utilizing human resource to improve socio-eco-nomic development and education. This necessitates prior visualisation of spatial growth to mitigate the environ-mental and ecological impacts associated with the land use land cover [LULC] changes.
The Government of India [7], in recent times has initi-ated ambitious novel programmes such as Make in India, Skill India, Smart Cities, Industrial Corridors, Digital India, etc. The purpose of these programs was to enhance the job opportunities and boost countries economy with planned capabilities through global competitive methods. Industrial corridors are one such initiative under the vision of development in various states of India linking major cities, that aid as transport routes connecting various eco-nomic centres and industries [8]. These corridors would play an important role in connecting regional economies while boosting the local economy towards regional or global development [8]. In India, industrial corridors with improved connectivity, energy distribution systems, piped network, etc. would focus on cluster development approaches. This would expand manufacturing and ser-vices base, develop as a Global Manufacturing and Trading Hub [9], expand domestic markets, integrate domestic companies with global market, that reduces the regional inequalities [10]. The Government of India has launched 5 major industrial corridor projects under the National Industrial Corridor Development and Implementation Trust [11] in 2014–2015, which include Delhi Mumbai Industrial corridor, Bangalore–Mumbai Industrial corridor, Chennai– Bangalore Industrial corridor, Chennai–Vizag Industrial corridor, Amritsar–Kolkata corridor. These identified pro-jects are expected to be the key economic driver for increasing share of manufacturing in India’s GDP from 15 to 16 to 25% by 2022.
Academia and industries have been the pivotal pillars of economy and the regional prosperity. A robust collabora-tion among the academia, government and industry gives impetus to the planned urbanisation with innovations towards provisioning smart infrastructure, basic amenities, quality education system, while producing an employment-ready workforce.