Ease Of Living: Chennai Gets Its Best Score In Transport, Open Spaces Categories

Incessant rains and civic issues might be bothering the residents of Chennai, but the recent findings of the Ease Of Living Index 2018 report brings reasons to cheer as the capital city of Tamil Nadu was ranked at the 14^th position in a list of livable cities led by three Maharashtra cities — Pune at the top, Mumbai at the second spot and Greater Mumbai at the third position. 

A first-of-its-kind assessment of cities based on the ease of living standards, the report was released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on August 13 that ranked 111 Indian cities across various categories such as governance, education, health, safety and security, solid waste management, housing and inclusiveness, etc. and four pillars viz. institutional, social, economic and physical. The evaluation of cities was done on a 100-point scale across 78 indicators with 25 points each for institutional and social pillars, 5 points for economic and 45 points for the physical pillar. 

Chennai offers a quality life

With 47.24 points, Chennai attained the 14^th position on overall rankings and outperformed other major cities on other categories. It stood at the second position next to Greater Mumbai in the category of ‘best city with a population of more than four million.

The city scored well in the social and physical sub-indexes and in categories such as economy and employment, governance, health, identity and culture, mixed land-use and compactness, assured water supply and wastewater management.

Access to quality educational institutions is an aspect of city life that Chennaiites feel proud of. So, when it came to education, the Tamil Nadu capital beat other metropolitans like Delhi, Bengaluru and Greater Mumbai. Not just on the education front, Chennai was ahead of these cities in the category of safety and security.

Given the city corporation’s proactive efforts in managing the traffic situation, it is no surprise the city grabbed third spot under the transportation and mobility parameter, and the fourth spot under public open spaces category.

Areas Chennai finds itself vulnerable

The city has been struggling with long, unscheduled power outages which has brought down the livability quotient. Compared to Thane in Maharashtra that got the first place in the ‘power supply’ category in the ‘Ease Of Living Index 2018’, Chennai was among the worst performing cities when it came to efficient power supply.

Poor performance in areas of solid waste management and housing also dragged the city’s ranking in ease of living index down by many spots. Lack of seriousness of the state government towards these issues has become a raging debate among citizens and political leaders following the release of the report.