Team Herald

PANJIM: It’s now official. Panjim is not among the best of cities to live in. The State capital has been relegated to 90th position amongst 111 cities across the country in the first ‘Ease of Living Index’ announced by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. 

The ranking of the cities was based on institutional, social, economic and physical parameters.  

Pune has been ranked first in the list with Navi Mumbai coming in second followed by Greater Mumbai, Triputi, Chandigarh, Thane, Raipur, Indore, Vijayawada and Bhopal.

While Rampur is ranked the lowest, those in the bottom ten include Kohima, Patna, Bihar Sharif, Bhagalpur, Itanagar, Pasighat, Kavaratti, Saharanpur and Silvassa.

Srinagar is ranked 100th, Jammu is at 95, Aligarh 86, Gurugram at 88 and Meerut is 101. Ghaziabad is ranked 46th and Rai Bareli is at 49.

This is the first such exercise undertaken by the ministry to rank the country’s major cities on the basis of four parameters of ease of living – governance, social, economic and physical infrastructure.

The ministry said evaluation of cities has been done on a 100-point scale across 78 indicators – institutional and social pillars carried 25 points each, 5 points were given for economic pillar and 45 points for the physical pillar.

Releasing the index, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday said this assessment is a first of its kind globally in terms of scale and coverage and the ranking marks a shift to a data-driven approach to urban planning and management and promotes healthy competition among cities.

The survey was planned in June 2017 and with the help of Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar. Puri launched the survey in January 2018.