An Empirical Study of Urban Primacy in Sub Himalayan North Bengal: The Case of Siliguri

In this paper an empirical Study has been made to find out the nature and the present scenario of urban primacy. Sub Himalayan North Bengal having an important physio-cultural importance also the phenomenon of urban primacy quite strongly. With an increase in urban population, better urban amenities and services Siliguri emerged as the single largest city of the whole region. In terms of population Siliguri is four times larger than the second largest city of Sub Himalayan North Bengal and also account for around two-third of urban population of this region. Siliguri, a primate city not only serves its adjacent areas, but also have a vast catchment area of the entire region. Sub Himalayan North Bengal, which is a very important physio-cultural region in terms of its geographical, historical, socio-political causes and Siliguri is the strategic center and transit point for the whole region. In order to measure the level of primacy Rank Size Rule of Zipf, Index of Primacy of Jefferson (Gibbs) and Reily’s Breaking Point Analysis has been used. The study concludes with the dominance of Siliguri with respect to other town of this region, which advocates for the need of proper decentralized planning in future for sustainable betterment.