Mumbai: Navi Mumbai has been ranked sixth in the country and second in Maharashtra, in the Ease of Living Index 2020 rankings of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs released on March 4, 2021. Experts believe that it is the youngest of the lot with a very bright near future.
Bangalore has topped the charts amongst the cities with over a million pollution, with Pune being the second. 111 cities participated in the assessment exercise that was conducted in the year 2020.
Under its umbrella are 78 indicators across 15 evaluation criteria—governance, education, identity and culture, health, security and safety, economy, affordable housing, land use planning, public open spaces, waste-water management, transportation and mobility, solid waste management, land use planning, assured water supply, economy, affordable housing, power and quality of the environment.
Taking into consideration the parameters used to rank the cities, Navi Mumbai performs extremely well, offering the finest quality of life, city resilience and citizen perception. It lacks scores in economic ability, level of economic development and opportunities as well as green building parameters.
The highs are attributes by experts from cross-section of society to excellent SWM projects, water supply, etc. The low score in economic development is being attributed to the city as it is much younger as compared to others.
Commenting on the ranking, Bhupendra Shah, chairman and managing director of Bhumiraj Group and also Chairman Trustee Board, Builders Association of Navi Mumbai, said, “It is a matter of pride that Navi Mumbai has been ranked 6th in the Ease of Living Index. I am sure we will top the rankings in the next 5 years.”
He added, “The cities like Bangalore, Pune, Surat, etc have been in existence for hundreds of years while Navi Mumbai came into existence just 30 years back when APMC came to the region. In fact, getting this rank in such a short time is unprecedented.”
Bhupendra Shah, who also plays the role of Founder Trustee of Builders Association of Navi Mumbai (BANM), said, “Several mega projects worth over Rs.1,40,000 cr are coming up in the 55 sqkm region which will provide over 10 lakh jobs in the next few years. This was confirmed by former CIDCO vice chairman and managing director Bhushan Gagrani. This is the biggest such investment in such a small area anywhere in the country.”
According to Shah, “Airport will lead to several related industries coming up, apart from JNPT being expanded with new ports, almost 22 jetties are being constructed, Reliance SEZ will generate lakhs of jobs, the IT companies are coming up big in MIDC area, MTHL too is on the anvil. There is the freight corridor and other railway corridors coming up.”
Bhupendra Shah concluded, “There are several parameters in which the city has done well should have in fact been higher. Maybe there were discrepancies in the survey. The 6th rank does not reflect the true status in the city nor do the economic and job opportunity parameters. We are anyway set for the top rank soon and will of course get the top rank in Swachch Survkeshan that will be announced this year.”
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