How many metro cities in India

I would like to know how many metro (metropolitan) cities there are in India and which ones they are.

I have visited the obvious ones like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore but would like to know about the other ones as well.

 

Hello, @Keenan! Welcome to the forum!

So first, let's take the definition of a metropolitan city from the Constitution of India:

'Metropolitan area means an area having a population of ten lakhs or more, comprised in one or more districts and consisting of two or more municipalities or panchayats or other contiguous area, specified by the governor by public notification to be metropolitan area for the purposes of this part.'
​

According to this definition, a city has to fulfil the requirements mentioned in the clause in order to become a metropolitan area. Let us break down these requirements:

• A population of ten lakhs or more, which means about one million or more.

• The one million population can be at one or more districts.

• The city must have two or more municipalities or panchayats.

Sometimes, cities with populations of one million and above are referred to as the Million Plus Cities. On the other hand, cities with above four million in populations are referred to as Mega Cities.

Taking these into consideration, there are about 46 metropolitan cities in India. This number is based of the latest 2011 census. The number of metropolitan cities could have increased in the last few years. Out of these 46 metropolitan cities, 8 of them are considered as Mega Cities. The remaining 38 are considered as Million Plus Cities.

So first, here are the 8 Mega Cities in India:

• Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata & Surat

Then, here are the 38 Million Plus Cities in India:

• Pune, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kanpur, Nagpur, Visakhapatnam, Indore, Thane, Bhopal, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Patna, Vadodara, Ghaziabad, Ludhiana, Coimbatore, Agra, Madurai, Nashik, Vijayawada, Faridabad, Meerut, Rajkot, Kalyan-Dombivali, Vasai-Virar, Varanasi, Srinagar, Aurangabad, Dhanbad, Amritsar, Navi Mumbai, Allahabad, Ranchi, Howrah, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Jodhpur, Raipur & Kota

Together, these are the 46 Metropolitan Cities of India. These cities are listed according to the populations. So Mumbai, with a population of 12,442,373, is the first on the list. Then, Kota, with a population of 1,001,694, is last on the list.

In addition, Mumbai has 27 municipalities, Delhi has about 52 municipalities, Bangalore has 11 municipalities, Chennai has 21 municipalities, Hyderabad has 12 municipalities, Ahmedabad has 26 cities, Kolkata has 72 municipalities and Surat has 9 municipalities.

I hope this helps you.

​

 

There are basically 4 metro cities in India and they are Delhi, Mumbai, kolkata and Chennai. But over time Bangalore and Pune have been added to this list. So, that is all we have as metro cities.

 

Technically there are over a 100 Metropolitan cities in India. However, for "ease of administration", 8 of the mega cities are called Metropolitan, namely: Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai,Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune .

I hope this answers your question.