Vizag, Tirupati among top 10 cities in MPI index

Visakhapatnam: Visakhapatnam and Kakinada ranked in two categories while Tirupati in one, in the final rankings list of Ease of Living Index and Municipal Performance Index for 2020 announced by the Housing and Urban Affairs in New Delhi on Thursday.

Visakhapatnam stood 9th in the municipal performance index with a 52.77 score in the ‘above one million population’ category and 15th in Ease of Living Index with 57.16 score points in the same category. Union Minister of state for housing and urban development Hardeep Singh Puri released the ranking.

Tirupati got the second rank in the municipal performance index with a 51.69 score and Kakinada the 11th rank with a 46.89 score in the ‘below one million population’ category. Kakinada also ranked 4th in Ease of Living Index with a 56.84 score in the same category.

“We did the best in meeting all the parameters set by the ministry with regard to providing services from water supply to other basic services. We will keep improving every year to get better rankings,’’ said a senior official of Greater Visakhapatnam Smart City Corporation Ltd.

Kakinada municipal Commissioner Swapnil Dinkar Pundkar has expressed joy on achieving the rank and said the city will strive to achieve a better place and will be top in future. He greeted all the government and private departments who were involved in submitting information to the ministry and noted the help and participation of all the staff and political leaders.

Expressing happiness over the achievement, municipal commissioner of Tirupati PS Girisha congratulated the denizens, public representatives and officials and staff. “The main goal of TMC is to improve the standard of living of every denizen and provide them a proper development-oriented environment. Securing the second spot in MPI is the result of the hardworking of civic body staff and cooperation of denizens,” he said.

The MPI examined the sectoral performance of 111 municipalities (with Delhi being assessed separately for NDMC, and the three Municipal Corporations) across five verticals which comprise of 20 sectors and 100 indicators in totality. The five verticals under MPI are Services, Finance, Policy, Technology and Governance.

The Ease of Living Index (EoLI) is an assessment tool 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 sustainability and resilience. The assessment also incorporates the residents' view on the services provided by city administration through a Citizen Perception Survey.

Both the indices represent an attempt to gauge the performance of cities on various parameters of urban living. The Ease of Living Index encapsulates the outcome indicators while the municipal performance index captures the enabling input parameters. These indices provide a holistic assessment of cities based on their efforts to cultivate better quality of life, create infrastructure, and address challenges of urbanization.