‘Tura’ is popularly believed to be the abode of ancient tribal god ‘Dura’. ‘Tura’ is thus supposed to have originated from the word Dura. It is the second largest town of Meghalaya. Located 340 KM away from the state capital Shillong, it is the District Headquarters of West Garo Hills, and also the divisional Head Quarters of Garo Hills Division comprising three districts, namely West Garo Hills, East Garo Hills and South Garo Hills. A National Highway NH-51, the rail head at Krishnai in Assam, waterway at Phulbari on the western front of West Garo Hills District and a proposed airport at Jengjal at a distance of 127 KM, 67 KM and 36 KM respectively connects Tura to the other two District Head Quarters of Garo Hills Division, namely Williamnagar, East Garo Hills and Baghmara, South Garo Hills.

The town is strategically located with the district boundary alongside the international border with Bangladesh and the interstate border with Assam. Border trade with Bangladesh and trade linkages with the western Assam districts as well as North Bengal offers enormous scope to the town to emerge as the regional urban center in the western periphery of North East India. As of now, the town has been serving as the regional urban center of the entire Garo Hills Division.

The town is located approximately along 90°: 9’:30” – 90°:19’:00 longitude and 25°:33’:30” latitude and has average altitude of 1300 meters above sea level. Tura town lies at the foot of Tura Peak, which has an altitude of 1412 meters above sea level and forms the main landmark dominating the eastern boundary of the town.

Tura is largely inhabited by Garo tribes with a section of non tribal populace although it is slowly assuming a cosmopolitan nature with various other tribes and non tribal people pouring into the town as it grows. The growth of the town is being propelled by the expansion of service sector which brings with it in migration from different communities.

Tura town falls under the Central Main Plateau Region. The main physiography features of the area are the WNW-ESE Tura range with steep southern as well as Western faces. This range has an average height exceeding 1300 mts with a maximum height of 1412 mts at Nokrek Peak. Tura peak is the major water shed of the area and streams descending from this range flows down north and southwards with very steep gradients in the initial reaches. The natural drainage pattern of the Town is determined by as many as three rivers, namely, Ganol, Bugi and Dareng. It is possible that the tectonic features, the WNW-ESE thrust on the southern side and ENE-SWS fault passing almost through Tura town on the western face of Tura range might have affected the drainage pattern and the young age of these tectonic features has brought the Town under Zone – V, the highest risk seismic zone of the Country’s Seismic Map.

In the area surrounding Tura town gneisses of Archacan age and sandstone shales of tertiary age are exposed. Gneisses are predominantly granitic gneisses, biotite gneisses and miegnatites with lenses of amphibolites, dolerite dukes and a number of quartzzofels-panthioc veins. These are exposed at about 1 km North of Rongkhon and at Ganol bridge site. These gneisses form the part of basement over which sedimentaries were deposited. The sedimentaries are essentially sandstones with bands of shales, which have been classified under Shella formation of Jaintia group. The sandstones were exposed on the northern and eastern side of Tura town. Grey and Khaki shales are exposed on Tura-Baghmara road near Darengre. It has also been interpreted that the contact between gneisses and sandstone into Tura town in marked by a prominent NNE-SSW trending fault.

The weather and climate conditions of Tura town are primarily a part of broader conditions obtained in North East India with the exception of the impact of local physiographic conditions. The climate conditions range from sub-tropical to semi temperate at the higher elevation. Fairly high temperature is experienced at certain seasons of the year. November to February are the only cold months in the year, when the temperature is comparatively low and when there is very little or no rainfall. The temperature during this period ranges from 10-200C and dryness prevails during this season. The rainy season starts from June to October and is influenced by the south west Monsoon. The mean temperature during this season ranges from 260C to 300C with an average rainfall ranging from 500mm to 700mm.

Urbanisation In Tura

Tura is one of the oldest district head quarters of North East India and has been functional since 1866 when it was the district head quarters of the entire Garo Hills Division. Tura had its urbanization seed sown as early as in late sixties of nineteenth century. But being essentially an administrative center and owing to poor communication, the town did not experience any remarkable growth until the formation of the State of Meghalaya in 1971.
 

Growth Rates

The growth rate of population in Tura town has not been significantly upward. The most spectacular growth in the population of the town was observed during 1971-81 when Tura experienced a massive 127 percent rise in its population. This abnormal growth has been explained mainly as due to the formation of the State of Meghalaya and the consequent spurt in urban activities centering around the administrative functions and partly due to the readjustment of municipal boundary when as many eleven villages were brought under the jurisdiction of Tura Municipal Board. The population growth of the town tabulated in Table number 1.2.1 reveals that there has in fact been marginal decline of 0.43 percent in the growth rate of population in Tura town between the decades of 1981-1991 and 1991-2001. The annual average growth rate of population between1991-2001 has been 0.03. As is evident from Table no. 1.2.1 it took almost a century for the town to attain Class II status.

Growth of Population in Tura Town (Table number 1.2.1)

• Households. There are an estimated 10,184 households in Tura and these households fall approximately under the following income brackets.

• Markets.

Najing Bazar Site

No. of each type of shops in weekly and daily market

     (A) Daily

     (B) Weekly

• Hotels & Restaurants.

• Shops

Numbers of Ward, Household and Population as per 2001 Census

Numbers of Ward and BPL Household

Ward Wise Density Of Tura Town

The residential density taken ward wise excluding non-residential areas like park, open space and major road computes thus: Gross residential density of Tura urban area equals. Table-1.2.2 shows the statistics on ward wise density.
High density development are found in Tura Bazar, Nakham Bazar, Dharamsala, Bamonpara, Hawakhana, Arai-mile, Dakopgre, Matchakolgre which range from 50-85 persons/acre. This is because these areas are situated near the working place and commercial centres, where as medium density within the range from 30-50 person per acre are found in the areas of Sangsanggre, Boldak-A-Ding, Lower Dobasipara etc. as these areas are located little away from the work place and commercial area. The low density which range from 20-30 person/acre are found within the area of Wadanang, Rongkhon, Cherangiri etc. These areas are located far away from the work place and commercial centre.

Table No. 1.2.2
Ward Wise Density in Tura Town

Tura Master Plan

The Urban Affairs Department of the Government of Meghalaya has prepared a complete Master Plan for Tura town which has subsequently been adopted by the State Government. Presently the land use of entire master plan area of Tura town and its broad physical pattern is regulated by the District office of the Meghalaya Urban Development Authority following the provisions of Tura Master Plan.

The municipal area of the town is 18.32 sq.km. However in view of the fast expansion of Tura particularly during the last decade, many villages around the periphery of the town now form a part of planning area of the town. Thus the master plan of the town now covers an area of 39.16 sq.km. The Master Plan Area contains 10 villages besides the Municipal Boundary of Tura. These villages are Danakgre, Badagongre, Agilanggre, Doldegre, Bokmagre, Robagre, Dopgre, Walbagre covering an area of 39.16 sq.km.

Existing Land Utilisation Rate

It is seen from the table mentioned above more than 70% of the total developed area has been utilized for residential purposes which constitutes only 22% of the total Master Plan Area while Land utilization for commercial, industrial and recreational purposes has been quite low. There is enough space therefore for the future expansion of the town

The Public and Semi Public use includes in its fold administrative uses, institutional uses like land under educational / health care use, recreational use and land which are used for other public uses like grave yard, cremation ground etc. The transportation uses includes land for transport terminals, parking space, land under roads, footpaths etc. The classification of un-developable use includes land which cannot be brought under development owing to excessive slopes and other extreme topographical condition.

Thus we can understand that adequate land would be available for the future development of the town if we optimize urban land use.
The proposed land use as recommended by the District Urban Planning Office is tabulated in the table given below:

Proposed Land Used