Question.
Can one imagine the presence of only a one-function town? Why do the cities become multi-functional?
(NCERT class 12 geography, India People and Economy, Chapter 4: Human Settlement.)
Answer.
A town is an urban settlement and the majority of the urban population is involved in secondary and tertiary activities that are interdependent [such as banking and transport activities are also often active in the industrial sector] and are multifunctional.
No, we cannot imagine a single-function town for the following reasons:
The town has at least two major functions:
- Role as a central or nodal location.
- specific function.
Town, market town(Mandi) provides many services directly and indirectly to the surrounding rural settlements through a chain of towns and cities. So it plays the role of a central or nodal location in the geographic space.
Some cities like Administration (New Delhi), Industrial City (Bhilai, Bokaro Steel City), Transport City (Kandla), Commercial City (Kolkata), Mining City (Dhanbad), Garrison City (Ambala), Education City (Kota), Cultural City (Varanasi), etc. are known as specific functions. But this functional name of the city is only for a short time as long as the population is small. As the population and size of a city increase, cities change from single-function to multi-function.
The town become multifunctional due to the following reasons:
- Since the function of cities is not static in nature, it is dynamic in nature. With the passage of time, when the specific cities further transform into metropolitan, mega-city and the growing population, the needs of the people also increase. Cities become multifunctional to meet the growing needs of the people.
- For example, earlier Dhanbad was known only as a mining town. Now it is the second largest city of Jharkhand after Jamshedpur and apart from mining activities, it is also a commercial center and industrial center.
- As of now, we cannot classify Mumbai, Chennai, Bhopal, etc on the basis of a single function.
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