Srinagar: Three years after the government started its Smart City Mission, Srinagar has been ranked at the bottom in the ‘Ease of Living Index’ (EoLI) by the union government.
Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs had chosen 49 cities with a million-plus population for the survey, Srinagar has secured the lowest rank in the most liveable cities of India.
Jammu, the winter capital of union territory at the same time has improved its rank to 27 in the list of cities with less than a million population.
Ease of Living Index 2020 was released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on Thursday.
The Ease of Living Index (EoLI) is an assessment tool by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs that evaluates the quality of life and the impact of various initiatives for urban development. It provides a comprehensive understanding of participating cities across India based on quality of life, economic-ability of a city, and its sustainability and resilience.
To know all these parameters, a Citizen Perception Survey (CPS) was undertaken from January 16 March 20, 2020, in which a total of 3.22 million citizens from 111 cities participated.
Among 111 cities that competed for the `Ease of Living Index’, Bengaluru attained the top rank followed by Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Surat, Navi Mumbai, Coimbatore, Vadodara, Indore, and Greater Mumbai.
Bareilly, Dhanbad, and Srinagar are ranked at the bottom in the ‘Ease of Living Index’.
Official sources said the unplanned urbanization, poor sanitation and road condition has been the main reason behind the city’s poor performance in the Ease of Living Index.
“The city miserably failed in sections including affordable housing, land use planning, public open spaces, transportation, and mobility, assured water supply, waste-water management, solid waste management, power, and quality of the environment. Srinagar has the best landscape and the government needs to improve these sections so that city’s rank improves, ” they said.
Vulnerable to floods, Srinagar often witness waterlogging due to the poor drainage system.
The summer capital city as per the sources has only 40 percent drainage system in place. “Out of 1283 kilometers, the government has completed only 546 kilometers of drainage for the last 10 years. Over 737 kilometers of Srinagar is without drainage system,” sources said.
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