list raises eyebrows as it places national Capital below Ghaziabad (63) and Muzaffarpur (46)
Four cities of Maharastra — Pune, Navi Mumbai and Greater Mumbai — have been ranked first, second and third in the list of most liveable cities. The list has raised many eyebrows as it places New Delhi at the 65th position, below Ghaziabad (63) and Muzaffarpur (46).
Among the list 111 cities, Rampur (Uttar Pradesh), Kohima and Patna are placed on the bottom. Apart from Mumbai and 14th ranked Chennai, the performance of the metro cities is pretty disappointing. Bengaluru is ranked 58th while Kolkata did not take part in the ranking.
The survey conducted to measure the quality of life was released by Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday. Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, which have a number of big cities, found no representation in the top 10.
As per survey report, New Delhi got 19 points on governance, 16 on identity and culture, 59 on education, 111 on health, 66 on safety and security, 109 on economy and employment, 99 on housing and inclusiveness, 1 on public open space, 100 on mixed land use and competiveness, 101 on power supply, 55 on transportation and mobility, 57 on assured water supply and 100 on retrieved pollution.
On the other hand, Pune which scooped the first place, was given 8 points on governance, 14 on identity and culture; 8 on education, 4 on health, 25 on safety and security; 7 on economy and employment, 23 on housing and inclusiveness; 4 on public open space, and 49 on mixed land use and compactness.
The Ease of living Index is an initiative of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to help cities assess their liveability vis-a-vis global and national benchmarks and encourage cities to move towards an ‘outcome-based’ approach to urban planning and management. Cities were ranked on four factors — institutions and governance, social infrastructure (education/health), economic factors and physical infrastructure. The evaluation of cities has been done on a 100-point scale across the 78 indicators with the institutional and social pillars, carrying 25 points each — 5 points for the pillar on economic, and 45 points for the physical pillar.
Apart from Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh were the only States to have more than one city listed in the top ten rankings. While Vijayawada ( 9th) and Tirupati (4th) were selected from Andhra Pradesh, the two cities in the list from Madhya Pradesh were Bhopal (10th) and Indore (8th). This is the first time that the Government had decided to conduct a survey to measure quality of life in 111 cities.
According to the list, among the Union Territories, Chandigarh was the only city that made it to the top 10 list and was placed 5th. Raipur of Chhattisgarh was placed at the 7th spot. Karim Nagar (Telangana) was ranked 11th, followed by Tiruchirappalli, Bilaspur, Channai, Jabalpur, Amravati, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Surat, Vasai-Virar city, Nashik, Solarpur, Ahmedabad, Ujjain, Coimbatore, Erode, Hydrabad, Madurai, Tiruppur, Jainpur, Nagpur and Gwalior among others.
Varanasi is at 33rd place, Ahmedabad at 23rd and Hyderabad at 27th. While Rampur is ranked the lowest, those in the bottom-ten also include Kohima, Patna, Bihar Sharif, Bhagalpur, Itanagar, Pasighat, Kavaratti, Saharanpur and Silvassa.
Srinagar is ranked 100th, Jammu at 95th, Panaji 90th, Aligarh 86th, Gurugram at 88th and Meerut is 101st. Ghaziabad is ranked 46th and Rai Bareli is at 49th.
On governance, Navi Mumbai, Tirupati, and Karim Nagar were the top three cities, while Chandigarh, Ajmer, and Kota aced in the economic factors category. On the social infrastructure category, Tirupati topped the rankings followed by Tiruchirappalli and Navi Mumbai. Greater Mumbai, Pune Thane secured the top three spot in the physical infrastructure category.
During the survey, the entire data was compiled on a new portal and a monitoring dashboard for a real-time update. Based on over 50,000 points, the Government surveyed over 60,000 people, conducted the secondary audit of 10,000 documents, and the physical audit of 14,000 units before finalising the list.