India, April 9 -- Large part of the increase caused by diversion of agricultural land

India's built-up area has steadily increased over the past 17 years from 2005-06 to 2022-23, expanding by almost 2.5 million hectares, a new analysis showed.

The trend underscored the rapid pace of urbanisation and infrastructure development across the country during this period.

The built-up land showed a modest increase with an overall growth of around 31 per cent during the period from 2005-06 and 2022-23, according to a comprehensive assessment of annual land use and land cover released by the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), ISRO, Hyderabad this month.

During this period, around 35 per cent of built up area has been added, with an average ...