INTRODUCTION

City profile- Kohima

Kohima is a picturesque city situated at the north-eastern border of India. The district of Kohima was established in 1881 as a Sub-division of formerly Naga district hill within Assam. When Nagaland became a fully-fledged state on 1 December 1963, Kohima was christened as the state capital. The city bears the famous Battle of Kohima where the Japanese planned to invade India by capturing Kohima and thus cut off Imphal but the Japanese for the first time in South-East Asia lost the initiative to the Allies.

Location and regional setting

Kohima is located at25º40'N 94º07'E  25.67ºN  94.12ºE. It has an average elevation of 1261 metres (4137 feet). Kohima city is scattered over several ridges.

Kohima is well connected with three national highways namely NH-39, NH- 150 and NH-61 that connects the city to other districts and neighboring state of Manipur and Assam. These highway traverses through the city thereby also functioning as the main arterial road for the city. The nearest access to airport and rail connectivity for the city lies 74 km away in Dimapur, the largest urban centre for Nagaland.

Demographic profile

Since the attainment of statehood in1961/62, Kohima serves as the main administrative centre for the state. Kohima has grown from 2.70 sq.km during the British period in 1944 to about 15 sq.km today.

As per 2011 census,Kohima Municipal Council has a population of 99078 which has been increased at28% decadal growth from 2001.   

_  Table 20.2-1:Demographic Profile

AREA

1944

1972

2001

2011

Kohima Municipal Area

Area(sq. km)

2.70**

7.03**

15**

15.2**

Population

-

-

77030*

77030*

Decadal Growth Rate (%)

-

-

-

28%

 

Pop. Density (per sq.Km)

 

 

5135

 6605

Source: *Census 2011, Census Office , Nagaland

**Urban Development Authority, Nagaland.

Economy

Agriculture activitiespredominates Kohima District.However, Kohima being the capital, functioning asan administrative and service centre like many of the other administrativetowns also has emerging service sectors over other sectors of employment. Thereare no such major industries in Kohima; however there are small scaleindustries like rice mill, iron and steel fabrications, automobile repairs etcin and around the city. According to 2001 census, Kohima district has about134689 total workers out of which 73.157 are cultivators and 6287 areagriculture labourers while 4504 persons are employed as workers in householdIndustry.

Physical growth pattern

The topography of Kohima is undulatingand settlements have taken along the ridge of several hills and the city isgrowing towards the north direction.Seismically, entire Nagaland falls underEarthquake Prone Zone-V. It is located in one of the most seismically activeareas. The whole city is prone to landslides due to its soil types and rockstructure. Every year, the city is affected by landslides especially on theeastern and western slopes causing damage to structures,lives and property.This is one of the main the city is developing towards the north direction.

Classification of slope reveals within the developed area reveals that 50% of settlements have come upon slopes that are 10-20 % and only 31% of the settlements are within 10% slope.

Slope Interval

 

Area sq.km

 

% of area

0-5

 

1.6

 

10

5-10

 

3.6

 

21

10-15

 

6.0

 

35

15-20

 

4.2

 

24

     
              Map 20-1 Classification of Slope 

Urban transport scenario

Vehicular growth

The vehicular growth rate in the city as seen in table below is showing that there is an annual growth rate of 5%. In the case of Kohima, the record maintained by the Registered Transport Office (RTO) is of the whole district of Kohima.

Mode

2001

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2-Wheelers

10775

10996

11225

11515

11700

11796

Car/jeep

20212

20928

21884

22962

23879

24630

Taxi

2490

2711

2940

3230

3359

3576

LCV Commercial

725

741

775

822

878

1018

Goods Vehicle (Trucks etc.)

9985

10187

10309

10477

10663

10937

Buses

9985

1252

1259

1268

1402

1440

Multi axle Articulated

1791

1988

2265

2747

3601

4938

Trailers

 

 

26

28

40

64

Tractors

711

716

721

722

756

775

Mini Buses

86

Nil

Nil

102

114

136

Others(Govt. Vehicles)

8885

9350

9805

10285

10744

11031

Total

56885

58869

61209

64158

67136

70341

                                                                          Source: City Development Plan, 2006

  

 Road network

The topography and terrain govern the form of network evolved; thereby Kohima has a linear road pattern where the three National Highways (NH-39, NH-61, and NH-150) forms the main arterial road of the city as these passes through the city. The total road network is 115 within the KMC area. Out of this 16.5 km comprises of National Highway.

Map 21-1 Road network (KMC& KOHIMA VILLAGE) 

Public transport systems

Till 2010, Public transportation in Kohima has been operated by multi private operators with a fleet size of above 100 buses.Private buses are either operated by individual owners or few church groups. It is only from the year 2011 that the JnNURM buses have been operational in the city under the management of Kohima Municipal Council (KMC). KMC has a fleet size of 25 buses with about 18 buses plying on road daily. The city has only 3 routes which are shared by the multi private operators and KMC. Although there are no physical infrastructures, at present there are six bus stops which are considered to be major terminals points in the city from where services are provide. The names of the six terminal points are; (i) PR Hill / BOC (ii)Kezieke (iii) Razhu Point (iv) Tinpati (v) High school Junction and (vi) Phoolbari Typically on these bus stops, buses wait in line for its turn to ply on the routes. Approximately, the numbers of buses that wait on the terminal points on any day are:-

Number of buses @ Terminal points

From New Sectt.

 

From PR Hill

High school junction

 

20

 

Tinpati

 

5

 

Razhu Point

 

3

 

Phoolbari

 

5

 

PR hill / BOC

20

Kezieke

 

 

8

                         

                 Map 21-2 Public transport network - Kohima 

Intermediate public transport modes 

Taxi functions as the intermediate public transport in Kohima which is the predominant mode of transport for the city. Taxis in Kohima serve areas that are inaccessible by bus. Taxi operates either as passenge rtrips i.e. shared taxi and hired trips. The minimum fare for passenger trips is Rs.20 and for hired trips is Rs 80. There are about 25 major taxis stands in the city as in the map below. Total number of registered taxi in Kohima is about 300-400, in addition there are also about 250-300 numbers of unregistered taxi that are running informally. 

                                                                           

            

              

                      Map 21-3 Taxi Stands- Kohima

Study Area

Study area delineation

                                                                                  

                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Jurisdiction

 

Total Area (Sq. Km)

 

Built up Area (Sq. Km)

KMC

 

15

 

8.44

Delineated Area

 

16.32

 

13.51

The areas included for the study are;

 KMC

 Kohima village

 Merima and Peripheral areas

 New Secretariat area.

 *The villages in Kohima district do not have any village boundary demarcation.

                                                                                                                                                   Map 22-1: Study Area

                                                                                                                

Selection of road network for inventory

The road selected for conducting the road inventory survey has been considered on the basis of road network classification as mentioned in the earlier chapter. In case of Kohima however, the right of way is not maintained uniformly because of physical constraints. Therefore judging upon the physical aspect i.e. the right of way need not necessarily be the criteria for defining the hierarchy of roads in case of Kohima. After classifying the road network, the road that has been selected for road inventory is 61 km.

Table 22.2-1:Road Network Classification

Road Levels

Length (Km)

% Share

 

Level 1

“ARTERIAL” – Formulates the pattern or form of the city”

In case of Kohima, Level 1 roads are the roads which takes care of primary traffic movement in and out of the city, The main roads in the city area: (i) NH-39 which passes through the city. (ii) NH-61 starts from the city (iii) NH-150 which connects the western part to east.

61

32%

 

Level 2

“SUBARTERIAL”

- Formulates patterns by further dissecting level 1 roads / Forms grids - patterns

Long roads (roads having lengths of approximately half or three quarter length to the city size) Major district roads & Other district roads Roads, which are further connecting level 1 roads

52

27%

 

Level 3

“Collector” – creates blocks

Roads that connect level 1 and level 2 roads Roads, that further create smaller grids

79

41%

 

Level 4

“Local roads” – Access to the residents

Roads that connects to residential units. (In case of Kohima, there are a number of footpaths that provide an access to properties or roads)

309 (nos)

 

 

Total

192

100

                                                                           Map22-2 Road network classification - level 1

                                                                             Map22-3 Road network classification level 2

                                                                     Map22-4 Road network classification level 1,2,3,4

                                                                                               Map22-5: Selected road network

 Selection of public transport routes 

At present there are only 3 routes in the city so all 3 routes have been selected for the study namely; (i) PR Hill / BOC – Kezieke/Razhu point (ii) Kezieke/ Razhu point - High School (iii) High School- New Secretariat. The boarding and alighting survey has been conducted on both the private bus and the KMC buses.

                                                                                         Map 22-6 Selected Public transport

 Selection of footstep ways 

The footstep ways have been selected based on the category of the footstep ways (also explained in Volume I – Benchmarking manual). From the road inventory survey it was found that there are about 309 footsteps ways that connect roads and households from one level to another level.Classification of these footstep ways are as follows:

Sr. no

 

Category

 

Total number of footstep ways

 

 

Selected number footstep ways for survey

1

 

Type 1

      

50

   

18

2

 

Type 2

 

153

 

40

3

 

Type 3

 

106

 

13

Note: A total of 309 footstep ways were identified. Most of these footstep ways connects one level to another level.Therefore it was repetitive to conduct the surveys on the footstep ways which are connected either way. For example: if one footstep way is present in road(a) – level 1 road then the same footstep way is connected to road(b)- level 1 road. Therefore it is not necessary to conduct survey from both the road.Likewise there are many footstep ways which are interconnected. The sample size also differs because of this.

                                                                                      Map 22-7: Classification of footstep ways

                                                                                          Map 22-8: Selected footstep ways