CHENNAI : Tiruchy (12) and Chennai (14) are ranked among the top 20 cities under the inaugural Ease of Living Index prepared by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.The survey was conducted in 111 cities of the country and the parameters for Ease of Living Index were governance, social institutions, economic and physical infrastructure under the 100 point scale with 78 indicators.
Interestingly, all 12 cities of Tamil Nadu figure in the top 50 rankings. Besides Tiruchy and Chennai, Coimbatore is ranked 25th, Erode 26th, Madurai 28th, Tirupur 29th, Tirunelveli 37th, Dindigul 40th, Salem 42nd, Thanjavur 43rd, Thoothkudi 44th and Vellore 48th. Interestingly, among the four pillars - institutional, social, economic and physical - divided into various categories, Tiruchy tops in health category which comes under the social category while Erode ranks top in assured water supply under physical pillar.
The good news for Chennai is that it is ranked above Bengaluru (58th), New Delhi (65th) and Hyderabad (27th). Kolakatta doesn’t figure in the list as it did ot participate while both Navi Mumbai and Greater Mumbai are ranked second and third respectively. Chennai scored 47.2 out of 100 points under four pillars divided into four categories. Its performance is below par in housing and inclusiveness where it got just 0.12 of the maximum 5. It also fared poorly in governance scoring only 11.69 of the maximum 25 marks.