There are total 6 metro cities in India. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. The population in these cities has already saturated and most of these cities are crumbling under their own weight. Their perennial problems are crumbling infrastructure, population (most of it migrants) and lack of skilled resources. All these problems have led to the hunt for 7th Indian metro. ASSOCHAM has analyzed four tier 2 cities to come up with the 7th emerging metro city in India. Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Pune and Lucknow are the 4 cities looked at.
What makes a metro a metro? These are 8 parameters on which a city is rated as metro.
- Business environment
- Infrastructure availability
- Real estate cost & availability
- Educational institutes
- Employment opportunity
- Social infrastructure
- Financial services
- Transportation facility
Of the four cities which were analyzed Pune ranked first for the first five parameters and came up 3rd for the last three parameters. Its overall standing is number 1. Ahmedabad came close 2nd to Pune to being a possible 8th metro. Of the 4 cities Pune has 26 malls and multiplexes, 25 star category hotels,100 (approx) public and private educational institutes.
Pune also has a 80.73 % literacy rate and skilled population. Lucknow has scored high on the connectivity and transportation facility. Pune came 3rd because of its geography (lack of railway junction). Pune has 3 national highways and an international airport which placed it above Chandigarh.
The one parameter missing in classifying a metro is the political climate. For a city to be truly a metro, it has to attract different cultures, foreign investment and people from all parts of the country. For these things to happen the political climate in the city or the state is very important. It is true that political climate is cyclical. But if we take the current scenario in Maharastra (Mumbai) the climate is not very conducive for business in general. Ahmedabad and Gujarat has its share of woes. The two cities which stayed away from any political controversies by large are Chandigarh and Lucknow. If we introduce the political climate parameter the ranking would be different. But I still think Pune would come out first as it has taken care of the first 5 parameters. I just hope ASSOCHAM never have to include the political climate as a parameter in their future study’s.