Times News Network
Kanpur: Kanpur ranked 28th in the Ease of Living Index (EoLI) ranking-2020 released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on Thursday.
The ministry had picked as many as 111 cities for this ranking and issued rankings upto 49. The ranking is based on the ease of living based on quality life, abilities, citizens perception and sustainability of services. Municipal performance was assessed on the basis of finances, planning, services, government and technology used by a municipal corporation.
According to the ranking list released by the ministry, total citizen feedback was 3.2 million, while social media hits were just 1.3 million. On the basis of the performance the average city score was 53.51.
As per the list released, as many as eight cities of UP got a place in the ranking. Except, Bareilly all remaining 7 cities have scored more than 50% points while Bareilly managed to collect in between 30 and 50 points slab.
This shows that municipal corporations showed an improvement in the performance in comparison to previous years.
In-charge of smart city projects RK Singh commented that the city has showed an improvement in many areas but more reforms are needed. “Our several projects such as water supply, sewer line, road transport, city bus service, fleet of 300 electric buses, integrated command centre are in progress,” he said.
The smart city in charge said that once these projects are completed then ease of living index of the city would improve further. With an improvement in the ease of life index it is expected that Kanpur may rank among the top ten cities of the country.
Last year, Agra topped in the Smart Cities chart with two other UP cities. Kanpur and Varanasi too had made it to the top 10 list. Lucknow has improved its position even if it did not figure among the elites.
The pan India ranking for 100 cities was based on the progress/completion rate of smart city projects.
Kanpur had ranked third, and Varanasi seventh, Prayagraj 12th, Lucknow 24th, Aligarh 55th, Saharanpur 68th, Jhansi 83rd, Bareilly 89th and Moradabad 97th.