HYDERABAD: Hyderabad was ranked 24th on the ease of living ranking among 49 cities with a population of more than one million, baffling urban planners who said the city has better infrastructure and lower cost of living than many cities ranked higher.
The assessment by the ministry of housing and urban affairs (MOHUA) was based on quality of life, economic ability and sustainability, among other parameters.
The Central government had launched the ease of living index (EoLI) and municipal performance index (MPI) to assess the performance of various cities. The city scored low in citizen perception, ranking 41st among 49 cities in the category. Scoring 70.70 marks, the city ranked behind Hubli Darwad (40th rank), Ghaziabad (33rd rank) and Aurangabad (39th rank).
The MOHUA score card also revealed that the city scored poorly in quality of living criteria. As per the assessment, Hyderabad (34th rank) stood behind Lucknow (33rd rank). The city scored 51.28 out of 100 marks in the category.
In the MPI index, the city stood at 17th spot among 51 municipal corporations. GHMC performed poorly in services parameter (45th rank) and planning (17th rank). The city scored 46.96 and 45.84 marks out of 100 in the categories respectively. In services parameter, the city was behind Faridabad (44th rank). The city ranked behind Faridabad (16th rank) in planning category as well.
When TOI called several resident welfare associations (RWAs), denizens, activists and top bureaucrats, they expressed dissatisfaction and lashed out at the survey. “I am totally baffled. We have been number one in Mercer’s quality of living index in India since 2015 till date and not finding ourselves in even top 10 is weird. It is very unfortunate that such rankings aren’t based on transparent criteria and are done always in a subjective manner,” said a top official from the state government.
A Narshimhan, president, Golf View Apartment, Financial district questioned the criteria and basis of the survey. “I don’t want to name the cities, but irony is cities and municipal corporations that have half the infrastructure and generate half the revenue compared to Hyderabad secured a better rank,” he said.