By Bizodisha Bureau, August 14, 2018: The State Capital here was ranked 18th out of 111 cities in the country in the latest Ease of Living Index 2018, published by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on Monday.

The ministry studied quality of life in each city based on several parameters, including institutional (governance), social (identity, education, health, security), economic (economy, employment) and physical (waste water and solid waste management, pollution, housing/ inclusiveness, mixed land use, power and water supply, transport, public open spaces) factors. Each parameter carried a weightage totaling 100 marks — institutional (25), social (25), physical (45) and economic (5). Based on this, the cities are given an overall rank.

The top three cities were all in Maharashtra; Pune is ranked the highest, followed by Navi Mumbai and Greater Mumbai. The cities which were ranked the poorest were Patna in Bihar, Kohima in Nagaland and Rampur in Uttar Pradesh.

However, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) sources said among the cities having a population of five lakh to one million, Bhubaneswar, which has a population of 8.85 lakh, stands at number four among the best livable cities after Chandigarh, Truchirapalli and Amravati on the index.

“The credit goes to everyone for Bhubaneswar’s 18th rank on ease of living index. But still a lot of work needs to be done,” said Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation Mayor, Ananta Narayan Jena.

Kolkata refused to participate in the survey.

The survey was planned in June 2017 and with the help of Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, Hardeep Singh Puri launched the survey in January 2018 which saw at least 116 cities of the country participating in it.

On individual parameters, Bhubaneswar got 1st rank in terms of public open spaces, 25th in governance, 18th in economy and employment, 33rd in solid waste management, 11th position in Education, 10th in transportation and mobility, 40th in power supply, 19th in identity and culture, and 17th in safety and security.