The document discusses service centers in a subdivision of West Bengal, India. It identifies 29 settlements as service centers based on criteria like being linked to a metalled road, having a population over 2,000 with educational, medical and communication facilities, and accounting for at least 0.05% of the working population. The spacing between service centers is calculated using Mather's formula. Nearest neighbor analysis is used to analyze the spatial pattern of distances. A composite centrality index is calculated based on functional centrality, working population, and commercial population indices to rank the service centers, with Diamond Harbour identified as the highest order center.

1. Sakti Mandal
Calcutta University Research Scholar (CSIR JRF)

2. The concept of service centres is the outcome of
classical ‘Central Place Theory ‘of Christallar and
Losch. The fundamental element of ‘Central Place
theory’ is the ‘Centre Place’ providing central
functions, which are available at a few places.
There are two main features of service centres i.e.
(i) The provision of external services
(ii) Trade and commercial activities. Service centres
integrated rural and urban activities and created
new employment opportunities for the region.

3. This subdivision covered an area of 1264.68 sq km and the
total population is about 1836769 as per 2001 census. It
considered an overall 26.60% of the total district population.
Diamond Municipality is the only one urban area in the
Subdivision, which covered very small area of 10.36 sq km.
Though it was established long in 1982, its rate of growth or
expansion is really pitiable. The density of population is very
high which is about 3594/sq km. But it is 2.36% of the total
population of the Subdivision. So easily assumed that 97.37%
of the total Sub divisional population lives in rural
areas, where development is taken care of by the panchayet
bodies.

5. The main objectives of the proposed work are as follows:-
(i) To identify potential growth centres and demarcates
their influence zones.
(ii) To appraise the physical resources viz. land, water,
vegetation etc. and cultural resources viz. Human
resource base, agricultural resource, industrial
resource and their localizing factors etc.
(iii) To present a perspective plan for balance development
of the Subdivision.

6. Community development block have been taken as the
unit of analysis.
Various data have been collected by the District
Gazetteer, District Statistical Hand Book, Statistical
abstract of the district etc.
For calculating service centres spacing in the study area
‘Mather’s formula has been employed.
The spatial pattern of distance of service centres, Nearest
Neighbour Analysis (N.N.A) has been employed.
Functional Centrality Index.

7. (i) The settlement should be linked with metalled road.
(ii) The marketing facility is a must.
(iii) A settlement with 2000 or more population having
educational (excluding primary school), medical
and communicational facilities has been treated as
service centre.
(iv)As per 2001 census, out of the district total working
force, share of the centre should be at least 0.05%.
Based on above criteria 29 settlements of the subdivision
have been identified as service centres.

8. The term “spatial pattern” signifies the form of
their distribution which indicates the locational
arrangement of points over the geographical
space. The spatial distribution of pattern of
service centre varies from region to region
depending upon the physico-cultural variations.
For calculating service centres spacing in the study
area ‘Mather’s formula has been employed. This
formula is mathematically expressed as
H.S = 1.0746 A/N,
Where, H.S. = Hypothetical spacing between two
centres, A= Area, N= Number of service centres.

9. Taking the block including municipality as an aerial
unit, hypothetical inter service centre spacing has been
calculated and three categories have been worked out
i.e. low, moderate and high spacing.
Four C.D. Blocks fall in low (below 3.5 km) spacing
group. Those are Magrahat II, Mathurapur I, Diamond
Harbour I, and Falta. This due to availability of various
infrastructures required for the creation of service
centres. Moderate spacing group (3.5 to Bellow 7 km)
holds four C.D. Blocks, namely-Magrahat
I, Mathurapur II, Diamond Harbour II, and
Mandirbazar. One C.D. Block Kulpi, with 15.6 km.
comes under high spacing group above 7 km.

10. For working out the spatial pattern of distance of service
centres, Nearest Neighbour Analysis (N.N.A) has been
employed .
1. ro = di / n
Where, ro= The mean actual nearest neighbour distance
Di= The distance from the i th point to its own nearest neighbour
n= Number of locations in the pattern.
For computing the rE (Expected mean distance) following mathematical expression is
used:
2. rE = 0.5√A/N
Where, rE= Expected mean distance,
A= Area of the unit,
N= Number of service centre in the pattern.
Index of randomness (Rn) has been calculated at the level by using the Clark and
Evan’s formula given bellow:
3. Rn = ro /rE
Where, Rn = Index of Randomness,
ro = The mean actual distance observed,
rE = The expected mean distance.

11. CHARACTERSTICS OF SERVICE CENTRE
ro, rE, H.S ro as %
Sl. Name of Block Area in No. of mean expected RN Hypothe of Di
No. Sq km Service actual mean value tical (Index
Centre distance distance spacing of
(Km) (Km) Random
ness)
1 Magrahat I 119.04 3 8.68 1.81 4.79 3.90 222.56
2 Magrahat II 136.93 6 14.27 0.97 14.71 2.09 682.77
3 Mandirbazar 118.07 2 5.37 2.72 1.97 5.83 99.81
4 Kulpi 210.83 1 8.69 7.26 1.19 15.60 55.70
5 Falta 130.68 4 11.37 1.42 8.00 3.07 370.35
6 Diamond 78.79 3 9.51 1.47 6.46 3.17 300.00
Harbour I
7 Diamond 95.59 2 8.48 2.44 3.47 5.25 161.52
Harbour II
8 Mathurapur I 147.30 4 10.96 1.51 7.25 3.26 336.19
9 Mathurapur II 227.45 4 14.68 1.88 7.80 4.05 362.46

12. Influence zone of a service centre is consequence of
locational network, distributional pattern of
population, status of infrastructure, facilities and
accessibility to the centre. These factors lead to interaction
of people who prefer a particular service centre, because
of proximity based on least travel time, cost and efforts.
Functional magnitude, commercial population and
working force are the reliable indicators of centrality.
Therefore considering the agrarian economy and rural
character of the study area, 32 functions like
education, health, transport and
communications, administration, agricultural extension
and credit /finance institutions existing at service
centres, have been taken into account.

13. The weightage for 32 selected functions has been determined by
applying Bhat’s formulla:
Wi = N / Fi
Where, Wi= Weightage to the i th function,
N= Total number of settlement of the district,
Fi= Total number of settlements having the i th function.
Functional Centrality Index (F.C.I):
FW1+ FW2+…………..n
F.C.I = ----------------------------------- X 100
∑w
Where, F.C.I. = Functional centrality index,
FW = weightage of function,
∑w = Summation of weightage score of all service centres of the area.
Working Population Index:
WI = Wi / w X 100
Where, Wi = working population of i th service centre.
W= Total working population of the district.

14. Godlund’s formula with slight modifications been used for
calculation C.I. index which is-
C.I. = (Tcpi /Tcp) X 100
Where, C.I. = Commercial population index,
Tcpi = Trade and commercial population of i th service centre,
Tcp = Total trade and commercial population of district.
Taking an average of functional centrality index (FCI), working population
index (W.I) and commercial population index (C.I),The composite
centrality index (C.O.I.) has been calculated for all 29 service centres
employing the following expression:
FCI + WI + CI
C.O.I. = ------------------- X 100
3

15. Service centres, population and Centrality Index
S.L Name of the
No. Order Service Population F.C.I C.I. W.I. C.O.I
Centre
1 1st order Diamond 30266 74.12 0.82 0.53 25.15
Harbour (M)
2 2nd order Magrahat 14634 33.63 0.25 0.18 11.35
3 3rd order Usthi 4570 24.25 0.07 0.05 8.12
4 Sarisha 3690 22.37 0.08 0.05 7.5
5 Mathurapur 7384 19.96 0.09 0.09 6.71
6 Baribhanga 6040 19.34 0.04 0.08 6.48
Abad
7 4th order Kamarpol 8526 17.37 0.14 0.11 5.87
8 Kulpi 2896 13.22 0.07 0.06 4.45
9 Lakshikantapur 3514 12.43 0.07 0.05 4.18
10 Gillarchat 24489 9.91 0.50 0.34 3.58
11 Raidighi 18917 9.96 0.33 0.26 3.51
12 Krishnachandr 7244 10.11 0.11 0.09 3.43
apur
13 Sirakol 8661 9.40 0.14 0.12 3.22

16. Continue table
S.L Name of the
No. Order Service Centre Population F.C.I C.I. W.I. C.O.I
14 5th order Dhamua 8933 8.57 0.16 0.12 2.95
15 Uttar Krishnanagar 10854 7.74 0.18 0.17 2.69
16 Fatepur 7330 7.89 0.15 0.11 2.68
17 Masat 4969 7.66 0.06 0.06 2.59
18 lakshinarayanpur 9438 7.35 0.07 0.13 2.51
19 Hottor 3785 7.33 0.06 0.05 2.48
20 Nalua 15572 6.85 0.26 0.21 2.44
21 Panch Gansingbar 7332 6.86 0.07 0.08 2.33
22 Purbo Gopalnagar 3657 6.86 0.06 0.05 2.32
23 Basulat 4518 6.26 0.06 0.06 2.12
24 Serpur 7506 5.99 0.10 0.10 2.06
25 Chalk paran katakhali 6684 6.00 0.11 0.09 2.06
26 Dihi Kalash 9594 5.91 0.17 0.12 2.05
27 Krishnarambasu 3634 5.78 0.03 0.05 1.95
28 Harisankarpur 10099 5.32 0.14 0.12 1.86
29 Chandapala Anantapathpur 4905 5.39 0.06 0.07 1.84

17. Diamond Harbour (M) town is only the 1st order service centre in
the subdivision having 22.15 C.O.I. by virtue of being
administrative headquarters of the subdivision and high
concentration of higher function as well as greater share of
commercial and working population. The first order service
centre comprises 3.44% of total service centre. Magrahat is only
the 2nd order service in the subdivision having 11.35 C.O.I. due to
block headquarter and also higher function. 3rd order service
centres i.e. Usthi, Sarisha, Mathurapur (Bhq.) and Baribhanga
Abad of which one is block headquarter and three have higher
level functions. Their composite centrality ranges 8.12, 7.5, 6.71
and 6.48 respectively. These 3rd order service centres comprise
13.79 of the total service centre. Fourth and fifth includes 7 and 16
centres which C.O.I. ranges between 5.87 (Kamarpol) and 1.84
(Chandapala Anantapathpur). These 4th and 5th order service
centres comprise 24.13% and 55.17% of total service centres.
(Table -3)

18. Composite Number of % of total Hierarchical
Centrality service service order
Index (COI) centre
>15.00 1 3.44 1st order
09.00 – 12.00 1 3.44 2nd order
06.00 – 09.00 4 13.79 3rd order
03.00 -06.00 7 24.13 4th order
<03.00 16 55.17 5th order
Subdivision total 29 100.00 -

19. In this study, the entire area of the subdivision
has been organized through service centres as
they perform various socio-economic functions
and provide facilities. These facilities should be
made easily available to consumers with 3 to 5
km radius. The subdivision area therefore
requires more service centres.