Malda in context: Street-network sprawl trends

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Malda plotted against West Bengal and India. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Malda's incremental SNDi rose from 4.58 to 5.29 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Malda ranked 56th out of 140 cities in West Bengal and 1247th out of 1868 in India as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Linshui, China
• Dutse, Nigeria
• Suixi, China
• Rongcheng, China
• Zhangpu, China
• Pampore, Jammu and Kashmir

In new street additions, Malda and Rongcheng both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Linshui built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Malda became progressively more disconnected, while Linshui became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards and Rongcheng fluctuated in connectivity. Malda and Linshui have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.