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A city is a large human settlement. People are the main driving force in a city. The dynamism of a city is dependent on people and their behaviour. A preliminary understanding of the composition and diverse capabilities of the populations in a city should be the key to a successful urban study.
This section provides a description of the demographic status and trends in the city, primarily based on 2012 census data, presenting an overall view of the population. Trends and patterns of urban population are discussed including aspects of demography such as age, sex, ethnicity, education levels; and overall observations with regard to migration patterns, suburban population and gender.
Understanding the demographic and composition patterns of the population within the existing physical boundary will help in planning a livable city.
Source - JICA
It presents the population of the Kurunegala Municipal Council and its growth rate for the next nine years starting in 2015. This indicates that there is a continuously increasing population growth rate within the municipality at that time, but that increasing growth is slow.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
Out of the total population within the Kurunegala Municipal Council limits, 48.52% are male and 51.48% are female.
The proportion of the total population divided by age is 22.86% for children under 15, 24.1%, for those aged 15 - 29, 39.83% for those aged 30-59 and 13.2% for the elderly population over 60 year.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
Kurunegala’s ethnic city makeup comprises a majority of 73.3 per cent Sinhalese, followed by 16.8 per cent Sri Lanka Moor, 8.1 per cent Tamil, and 1.8 per cent Other groups.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
Data showing the multinational language skills of ethnic group in 2012 in the Kurunegala Municipal Council.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
Sex ratio is calculated using the percentage of proportion of males relative to females in a population. The graph indicates that more females than males in all age group except less than 15.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
This describes how domestic leadership is divided into genders. Number of Male headed households are higher than the number of Female headed households in the municipal limit.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
The total male resident population in the Kurunegala Municipal Council area is 12,050, the total female resident population is 12,783 out of which the total male migrant population is 2,472 and the total female migrant population is 2,954
. According to that the amount of female inmigrants are comparatively higher than the male inmigrants.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
Employment is considered as the main reason for male population migration in to the city, and the females are migrated in the city is due to marriages and also considering employments as well as accompanying with a family member.
Education has always been a significant element in societal development. The development of education facilities contributes substantially to the development in an urban area.
As a developing country it is crucial to address poverty in order to attain the development goals. Education plays a major role in poverty reduction. Presently, several global cities have been implementing the concept of smart city to improve the quality of life of the society, including in the field of education.
Good educational institutions and coverage enables a population to have decent livelihoods be they self employed or part of the workforce. Understanding how a city provides primary, secondary and tertiary eductional as well as skill development through vocational centres could provide some pointers to how well a city is doing or where it needs to develop further.
Source - Human Resources Management Authority North Western
Kurunegala is one of the main centers for education and tuition classes. Locational advantage and easy accessibility cause to attract vast catchment of population from several detractions such as, Trincomalee, Polonnaruwa, Kakirawa, Anuradhapura, Kegalle and Puttalam. There are 25,000 of children are coming on weekdays and it's increasing up to 100,000 at weekends. Famous teachers and lecturers also come to teach advanced level for all the schemes, including with Maths and Science.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
The graph shows that sharply that females dominate in highest education achieved in Kurunegala MC throughout the category.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
Over 50 per cent of the group shows school education while 25 per cent not studying.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
It shows the computer literacy of persons between the ages of 10 and 40 in terms of gender and it explains that 66% of men and 43% of women in the Kurunegala Municipal Council are computer literate.
Connectivity is central to key GoSL strategic aims: to promote economic growth, and to rebalance growth across the country’s 9 provinces. Higher the connectivity to any city, better is the urban growth in that city.
Detailed information on key transport aspects including bus and rail transport, freight route maps, airports and logistic systems are aspects that should be considered for a city to be properly interconnected within the bigger system. One of the SDG targets 11.2 is about access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems, road safety, public transport, and if we are to move towards being sustainble, these need to be considered in tranpsort planning. Further, the needs of people in vulnerable situations, women and children, persons with disabilities and older persons should also be considered.
ICT coverage is another way of being connected and recent technological advances enable a city to be better connected through its access to ICTs as well.
Source - Urban Development Authority
Reduction of traffic congestion by providing vehicle parking areas for high density commercial development zones. The amount of land allocated to each of the proposed parking spaces is shown in the downloadable file here.
Source - Urban Development Authority
There are six main Class A roads running through Kurunegala town and this Kilometer values indicates how far away the destination of those roads is.
Source - Survey- Urban Development Authority, North Western Provincial Office, Road Passenger Transport Authority, Sri Lanka Transport Board - Kurunegala
The Kurunegala town has considerable daily mobility, compared to other key/capital cities (Anuradhapura 150,000, Kandy 350,000, Galle 150,000) in Sri Lanka. According to a Community requirement analysis, the agglomeration of services in the city is the main reason for this. Kurunegala is the main commercial center as well as the main administrative center in the area. Because of that, 28,000 of employees come for government jobs and 2,080 of commercial institutions are located with providing another 26,421 employment opportunities. For health services over 6,000 patients come to the government teaching hospital Kurunegala for treatment. Apart from that, over 20,000 people commute for health-related services including patient visits, channelling specialist doctors, etc. Popular schools of Maliyadeva Balika Vidyalaya and Maliyadeva College attract about 32,400 of commuting population. Besides that, Kurunegala is one of the main centers of education and tuition classes, attracting 25,000 children on weekdays and upto 100,000 at weekends. Kurunegala town is also famous for selling Japanese vehicles and vehicle parts. This also attracts a considerable population into the town center from other regions of Sri Lanka. Foreign agencies located in this town center is nearly 178, attracting about 4,000- 5,000 of daily mobile population, according to a research report.
Source - Road Development Authority
The road capacity analysis shows that, most of the main roads (belongs to the RDA) exceed their design capacities, according to a survey which is conducted by RDA. Kadurugas junction to Clock tower, Puwakgas junction to core town center, Core town center to Mallawapitiya and Baudhaloka Mawatha areas are main congested zones in Kurunegala town. It has to spend more than 40 minutes to travel 2km distance from the core town during the peak hours. This is one of main constraint to reduce the productivity and efficiency, as a town which depends on services.
Source - qq
These are the results of field survey of the UDA on March 26, 2018, from 10am to 10.30am. The problem of inadequate parking spaces cause to park vehicles either-sides of the main roads. It is disturbing to pedestrian movements and the main reason for traffic congestion. It will reduce the productivity and efficiency of the city.
Source - SOSLC Project
Number of motor cycle users are high in the city compared with other vehicle types in the city.
Source - SOSLC Project
The traffic situation in the city is elaborated in this data. highest traffic is recorded on 7 am. this is due to school and office time as predicted.
Source - Sri Lanka Police Department
Accident is an undesired or unintended happening. Inevitable accident falls within the concept of fatal or an unfortunate harmful event, event without apparent cause unexpected occurring. A Motor Traffic Accident occurs on highway collision with vehicles, persons or with property.
An Accidents may occur, between a vehicle and other vehicle, vehicle colliding with a person, vehicle colliding with movable or unmovable property, when a vehicle goes off the road, A person being knocked down with another person or due to natural or man made disaster.
Here are the details of the fatal road accidents that have taken place within the Kurunegala Police Division within the last few years. In addition, the following data file contains further details covering the entire country with an accident classification in varios sub sections.
Source - SOSLC Project
The data is visualizing that the route buses are the main mode of transportation which carry large amount of passengers in the city.
Source - Sri Lanka Railways
Number of annual railway passengers are increased throughout the time according to the data
Source - Sri Lanka Railways
Highest number of railway passengers are recorded by the Colombo line, according to the data.
Source - SOSLC Project
The data is elaborating the pedestrian movements in the city.
Cities are the primary drivers of economic development, therefore, Sri Lanka’s cities have a decisive role to play in driving the economy forward by catalysing high value-added economic activities, as the country strives to achieve upper middle-income country status.
According the latest Word Cities report, 80 per cent of global GDP is created by cities, despite their accounting for less than 60 per cent of the world’s population (UN-Habitat, 2016).
The Government of Sri Lanka recognizes the role of urban economy in shaping the future of the country. In this respect, Vision 2025 and Public Investment Programme (PIP) 2017-2020 lays out the urban policy priority actions: to promote western region as economic hub of the southern part of the Indian subcontinent, and to promote strategic city development to secondary urban spaces as provincial economic hubs.
It is also interesting to see how competitive a city is, taking into account current and potential roles of governments, businesses and the private sector in the economic development of the city and urban settlements, best use of human capital, and labour force participation, and existing skills and the job market etc. within demarcated territory.
Source - Kurunegala Municipal Council
Considering the evolution of changing the land use, the commercial usage increased during the 1997, 2001, 2017 as a considerable amount (1997 -1.47%, 2001- 4.97%, 2017-7.3%). This increment clearly, shows through the amount of building applications which are applied for commercial land uses in Kurunegala Municipal Council. In order to that, there is a potential to develop this town as an economic hub.
Source - Divisional Secretariat Offices – Kurunegala, Maspotha, Mallawapitiya 2016
Private sector employment has increased from 16.7% in 2011 to 35% in 2016, while public sector contributions increased from 16.7% to 19%. Employment in all three sectors - agriculture, foreign employment and Labor - decreased by 2016 compared to 2011.
Source - SOSLC Project
Kurunegala is ranked as the second highest on the CCI following Colombo and Kandy as first and third respectively.
Source - Central Bank Annual report 2017
This graph indicates the gradual rise in per capita GDP in Kurunegala MC.
Source - Kurunegala Municipal Council
The data elaborates the annual revenue and expenditure of the city
Urban governance can be simplified as “how government (local, regional and national) and stakeholders decide on planning, financing and managing urban areas”. It involves a continuous process of negotiation and contestation over allocation of social and material resources and political power.
This section provide a snapshot of the emergent contours of urban governance in Sri Lanka, focusing on financial resilience, service provision and economic dynamism.
Information available here are collected and calculated considering secondary data sets, ground level surveys as well as stakeholder discussions. The city governance index has taken many a factor into consideration and provides a valuable way of assessing our cities and how they rank from a governance perspective.
Source - Draft Urban Development Plan 1985 -1997, Kurunegala Town Development Plan 2006 - 2015, Field Survey of Urban Development Authority - 2017
The Central Business District (CBD) has high commercial development in consequence to the development of Kurunegala Town as a junction Town by converging the road network whilst a leaner commercial development along major road is seen. However it is observed even within the CBD between roads there is no tendency of commercial development owing to the fact that narrowness of roads in the interior area and nonconnectivity of road ends etc. It was also observed that as high as 10% of the land was set apart for education and government department etc. In the study of land use plan related to area of planning authority though 18% and 21.6% of land set apart for paddy and coconut cultivations respectively 16.6% of the paddy land are abandoned due to non-availability of water facilities. There is a problem of converting coconut lands all though it is 21.6% of the total lands, in to residential development due to its under productivity. Download Data Layer Here
Source - SOSLC Project
Financial resilience in the city is in a good level compared with the national average. rest of the other elements needs proper follow up to match the national average according to the data.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
In Sri Lanka the LAs are divided into three types according to its population and size: Municipal Councils (MC, 23) which corresponds to the city, Urban Councils (UC, 41) which corresponds to the town, and Pradeshiya Sabha (PS, 271) which corresponds to the village. They are responsible for providing a variety of local public services including roads, sanitation, drains, waste collection, housing, libraries, public parks and recreational facilities. This pie chart shows the distribution of LAs by province in particular local authority belongs. North Western Province include 1 MC’s, 3 UC and 29 PS’s. Kurunegala is the provincial capital city of North Western province.
An important function of Sri Lanka’s cities is to provide housing for the diversity of residents that support urban life. Sri Lankan early urban settlement legacy – histories, patterns, trends including land use and housing and the development challenges that come along with it have shaped the nature of our cities.
The share of housing as a proportion of built-up area across the different cities was considered, and numerous factors affect the figure. e.g. Anuradhapura, has restrictions on residential developments because of its cultural, historical and touristic importance, other MCs include significant social and economic land use, operating as a hub to surrounding suburbs and rural areas with large residential populations.
Housing policy challenges that are encountered by the city administrators relate to tenure systems, the supply of affordable, high quality housing, and difficulties accessing housing finance.
Source - Kurunegata Pradeshiya Sabha
This clearly illustrates the amount of land subdivisions for residential developments are increased with time series. People tend to migrate to town areas due to the agglomeration of services and economic activities in Kurunegala. As a result of that more than 50 acres of lands are converted to residential usage per year. There is a trend of establishing three-storey residential apartments in this area, according to building applications in the Kurunegala MC area (ex: 326 of Preliminary Planning Clearance are approved for apartments during 2017 May to 2018 May – (source; UDA data).
Source - Urban Development Authority
The future housing requirement ware calculated, considering the population increment rate, available potentials for residential development, cost of infrastructure facilities, physical factors, environmental factors and future development potentials. According to that, assume 3.86 people per square meter as the population density.
Source - Urban Development Authority
The Kurunegala district is disaster free, flat terrain area when compared with other districts in Sri Lanka. The vision (‘Proper, Secure and Perfect land’) of the National Physical Planning Policy and the Plan- 2030 also identified, the Kurunegala has the potential to develop a proper residential area because of its locational advantages. Here they expect to increase the residential population up to 10 lakhs within the Kurunegala district and it is 250,000 of the residential population, within the planning boundary, by 2030. The proposed development plan will develop the infrastructure facilities, according to future expected requirements. The proposed settlement plan expects to develop residential usage within the planning boundary, while preserving the wetlands. Here hopes to develop the planning boundary as five density zones, according to the analysis (Livability Analysis, Potential Analysis, Sensitivity Analysis) which are carried out to identify the suitable lands for residential usage.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
The graph indicates the typology of housing in the Kurunegala MC Area. The majority of housing (around 90 per cent) comprises single story and two story houses.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
The graph indicate that in Kurunegala municipal council almost 90.5 per cent of the houses were permanent in 2012
Municipal services is one of the key tasks an urban centre carries out fto ensure a functional living condition for its citizens.
The access to municipal services and the quality of their provision strongly influence the social, economic and environmental performance of a city as well as urban development.
Urban centres provide key services that underpin Sri Lanka’s socioeconomic development. Cities provide key government administration functions, such as vehicle registration services, access to social protection schemes, and a range of additional services (explored in detail in Chapter 9, urban governance in the SoSLC Report). Urban centres provide residents with health and education services: providing equitable access to quality healthcare and education. They also include services to facilitate social recreational activities and promote community cohesion, such as libraries, community centres and sports facilities. Ensuring quality services is a crucial component in securing an urban future for all Sri Lankans.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
Kurunegala MC Area has extremely high coverage of electricity and water services over 97.2 per cent and 95 per cent having access to safe drinking water and electricity respectively.
Source - JICA
This is a data which is explaining the composition of the collected waste in the city. Waste composition in the Kurunegala MC is referred to in the survey results in the Solid Waste management Action Plan (2008) by the National Solid Waste Management Support Center.
Source - JICA
The data is elaborating the amount of waste generated in individual land uses
Source - JICA
Almost 10.1 per cent households were not covered for garbage collection, around 7.3 per cent households burning or burying their garbage.
Source - Kurunegala Municipal Council
This data is on the available street lights in the city area
A city needs to have an environment that is habitable and conducive with appropriate spaces for people who use the city, while also being resilient in the face of increasing climate risk.
Aspects such as a cities’ air and water quality, quality of the built environment as well as the aesthetic and historic aspects in the city are things we need to look at. However, in the light of increasing disaster risk, managing climate change impact in the light of current urbanisation patterns becomes a key concern, and thus land use planning in a city needs to take this into account.
SDG targets 11.4 (safeguarding cultural and natural heritage) and 11.5 (reducing impacts of disasters, especially floods), 11.6 (air quality and waste) and 11.7 (safe, open and green spaces for all groups) all emphasize that for a city to be sustainable, these aspects need to be considered.
Source - Urban Development Authority
.The Direct and Indirect Recreation Plan for the years 2018 - 2030 in Kurunegala Municipal area is categorized under four main proposals. The proposed Pocket Park, currently in commercial use, is 0.07 hectares. It belongs to the Central of Kurunegala Town Grama Niladhari Division. The proposed community park, which is currently a forest, is about 4.5 hectares. It belongs to the and Gatuwana and Kurunegala Bazzer GN s. Four main sections have identified as Proposed Forest Parks, Badagamu Forest (231.88 hectares), Kumbalpola Forest (53.95 ha), Hewaniyawatta Forest (53.95 ha) and Sundarapola (70.08 ha). The proposed linear park layout is available in five main categories: There are four 5 m canal reserves and one 30 m lake reserve as linear parks. 30m reserve is called as Wennaru Lake.
Source - Disaster Management Center
Flood in Kurunegala MC area is only recorded in 2014, 2015 and 2016 years (in 2012 to 2017 time period). The situation is same with the district level. Flood in year 2016 is the most significant one. Any life loss is not recorded within the urban areas due to flood in this years.
Source - Department of Meteorology
Here is the change in the annual values of air temprature from 2006 to 2013. According to the Kurunegala Observatory station, air temprature in the area is calculated separately for each month and more information can be downloaded from the following detailed statistics.
Source - Kurunegala Average relative
According to the Observatory, the average annual and monthly relative poverty rates are from 2008 to 2013. Instead, the graph represents the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere. In this study, we observe that in 2019, the average relative poverty will increase at night. From 2008 to 2013, daytime poverty remained the same.
Source - Annual and monthly rainfall
Annual and monthly rainfall from 2008 to 2013 according to observation stations.
Source - Disaster Management Center
Floods and the droughts are the main natural hazards which effects to the area. There is two deaths recorded due to flood situation in the city.
Source - Department of Meteorology
Data is on Average rainfall and temperature in urban area. the graph further elaborate the patterns and correlation in between the values.
Source - National Building Research Organisation
The data elaborates the level of pollutants in the air due to transportation in the city. Recommended sulfur dioxide (SO2 ) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2 ) levels are according to the WHO recommendations.
Cities are dynamic engines which are driven on diverse functions and performances. This space is arranged to visualise the diversity which forms the city.
Source - Kurunegala Municipal Council
While Kurunegala Town been Fifth Kingdom of Sri Lanka King Buwaneka Bahu the IInd in 1293 A.D formed the Kingdom of Kurunegala and ruled it for 48 years, the period of King Parakrama Bahu the IIIrd was renowned as the Golden Area of the Sinhalese literature where literary works such as Dalanda Siritha, Umandawa, Jataka Story Book, Sandakinduruwatha were written. Kurunegala Town had been used in 16th and 17th Centuries by the Portuguese as a collecting center for Cinnamon and Pepper while Englishmen in 17th and 18thCenturies used it as a main Administrative Center for Sathkorale..
There were 04 main kingdoms in the North Western Province. Panduwasnuwara , Dambadeniya , Yapahuwa, Kurunegala, Kurunegala belongs to Weuda Villi Hathpattu Thiragandahaya Korale. “Kurunegala” is the main capital of the North Western Province. Kurunegala District is the third-largest district in Sri Lanka. W.K. 4816 m. Depending on the administrative location, North - Anuradhapura, East - Matale, Southeast - Kandy, South - Kegalle and
Gampaha, West - Puttalam.
Kurunegala District is located in the middle of the districts. King Bhuvanekabahu II and King Parakramabahu IV from 1293-1333 AD and King Bhuvanekabahu II from 1347 AD and then King Vijayaba V made Kurunegala his kingdom. It is said that he ruled until 1398
Commencement of Kurunegala Municipal Council ...
A Pradeshiya Sabha was established on 09.10.1880 with the aggregation of the then resident elites of the city to govern the city of Kurunegala. Kurunegala Municipal Council was first established as a Municipal Council on 01.12.1939 to manage the city of Kurunegala.
Source - Urban Development Authority
Kurunegala Municipal Council Area has been declared under the Urban Development Authority Law on 01st of June 1979 by the Gazette notification bearing no.38/16. The Development Plan 2006 - 2015 Gazetted on 19.09.2006 by the Gazette bearing no.1467/33 is expired to the date. The area covering 96m2 and consists of 54 Gramaniladhari Divisions of the Pradeshiya Sabha that encompasses Kurunegala Municipal Council Area has been declared under Urban Development Authority Law by Gazette notification bearing no.1926/20 on 04.08.2015. With the development of Central Express Way, the entire Pradeshiya Sabha Area of Kurunegala has been declared under the said Law by Gazette notification bearing no.2068/47 on 28.04.2018.
There is a power to prepare a Development Plan for those areas declared under Urban Development Authority Law according to section 8 of Part 2 of the Urban Development Authority Law amendment Act No.4 of 1982 which depicts the planning
procedure read with section 3 of Urban Development Authority Law No.41 of 1978 passed by the National State Assembly.
Download Development Plan HERE
Kurunegala District Boundary Map:
Kurunagala Municipal Council is located in Kurunegala District in North Western Province. It shows its location. (Data Source _ Survey Department)
Download Map Here Download Data Layer Here
Map of Kurunegala Municipal Council Limit:
This shows the Kurunegala Municipal Council Limit with an area of 1099 hectares. (Data Source _ Urban Development Authority)
Download Map Here Download Data Layer Here
Road Map of Kurunegala Municipality:
Kurunegala Road System is very special because of the high level of connectivity. there are four main A class roads which go towards Puttalam, Dambulla, Ambepussa, and Kandy. It also has a widespread sub road system, in here road layer included with their names for more information. (Data Source _ SOSLC Project)
Download Map Here Download Data Layer Here
Map of Buildings of Kurunegala Municipal Council:
The location of the buildings is given here and some of the main buildings are included the use it.(Data Source _ SOSLC Project)
Download Map Here Download Data Layer Here
Sightseeing points in Kurunegala town:
The following are three places to view the beautiful vicinity of the Kurunegala city limits. (Source: Urban Development Authority)
Soil types within Kurunegala MC:
This shows the distribution of soil types within the limits of the Kurunegala Municipal Council. (Data Source: LUPPD)
Proper management of land, a scarce resource, can bring about many benefits. This is of great importance especially in urban areas.
It is timely to figure out how land is allocated and being used for what purpose in our cities today. In order to create well planned cities with a futuristic vision, having a better understanding of current land use is imperative.
Land use maps are categorized into 36 sub-categories under two types – built-up and non built-up. The extent of land in each of these sub categories are indicated below.
Land Use Map Description
In all of the cities it can be identified that the higher densities are concentrated in the city centres and the expansion is taken place along the roads. The expansion pattern is shaped by the geography of the surrounding area.
The selection of the area for the urban expansion analysis was followed by several preliminary studies. Initially, the urban index values which was identified using the remote sensing information were studied in the respective municipal areas including a fringe area.
Before selecting interested area for the expansion analysis it should consider following facts
- Municipal boundary
- At least 2-3 km buffer around Municipal boundary
- Rough boundary where the physical urban character disappearing
In the remote sensing discipline, the values higher than 0 represent the built-up areas.The boundary for the fringe area was identified by getting the extent of urban expansion as well as a fine boundary where the high-density expansion become insignificant. The identified boundaries were projected on to the latest satellite images to assure the identified urban index values are in line with the existing building densities.
Urban Expansion Map Description
