Chennai in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Chennai in context

33.544.55<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
33.544.55<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
ChennaiTamil Nadu (Region)India (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Chennai plotted against Tamil Nadu and India. The SNDi of new construction in Chennai rose steadily, compared to Tamil Nadu which rose steadily and India which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Chennai's incremental SNDi rose from 3.78 to 4.74 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Chennai ranked 62nd out of 121 cities in Tamil Nadu and 962nd out of 1868 in India as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
4.74
Rank in India
913th of 1868
Rank in Tamil Nadu
50th of 121

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.83
Rank in India
962nd of 1868
Rank in Tamil Nadu
62nd of 121

Rankings go from most connected to most disconnected — rank 1 is the most connected.

What about similarly populated cities?

3.244.85.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
3.244.85.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
ChennaiLagosRio de Janeiro

While Lagos and Rio de Janeiro both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, Chennai built increasingly disconnected streets over time in new street additions. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Chennai and Rio de Janeiro have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.