Urbanisation in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is one of the more urbanised states in India, with a comparatively large share of its population living in towns and cities relative to many other states. This urbanisation is closely linked to the industrial development described earlier — industrial growth and urban growth tend to reinforce each other, as factories attract workers into towns and cities, and urban areas in turn provide the infrastructure, markets, and labour pools that industry needs.

Chennai, the state capital, is by far the largest and most important urban and industrial centre in the state, combining a major port, a large automobile and auto-components industry, and a growing IT/services sector, as discussed in the previous section. Beyond Chennai, several other cities function as significant regional urban and industrial centres in their own right: Coimbatore (textiles and engineering), Madurai (a major commercial and cultural centre in southern Tamil Nadu), Tiruchirapalli (an important administrative, industrial, and educational centre in central Tamil Nadu), and Salem (known for its steel and related engineering industries, among other activities). Together, this pattern of one …