Hyderabad has emerged as the city with the best quality of living in India for the third year in a row, according to Mercer's Quality of Living rankings 2017.
For the second year in a row, New Delhi continues to be ranked the lowest, amongst the surveyed cities.
Both Hyderabad and Pune rank higher for quality of living than the country's more traditional business centres, Mumbai and New Delhi, globally ranked at 154 and 161 respectively.
"The survey highlights that Indian cities that have been part of the survey haven't made much progress on the quality of living scale since last year," said Ruchika Pal, Principal and India Practice Leader, Global Mobility.
The only exception is Chennai, whose score has marginally improved mainly on account of public transport, including buses and a recently expanded two-line metro system, and improved availability of expat housing.
Hyderabad has slipped five ranks from 139 last year to 144, on account of decreased power supply and water availability.
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On the positive side, Hyderabad continues to score high, in comparison with other surveyed Indian cities, on account of lower crime rate -- violence is uncommon in Hyderabad and in general, the police force is efficient and reliable, said the report.
While New Delhi scores well on account of its airport facility, availability of international schools and low probability of natural disasters. These positives are offset by a variety of negatives including a "notorious" crime rate, air pollution and water availability.
Mercer's survey also includes a city infrastructure ranking that assesses each city's supply of electricity, drinking water, telephone and mail services, and public transportation as well as traffic congestion and the range of international flights available from local airports.
Amongst Indian cities, Mumbai is ranked the highest at 141, followed by Kolkata (149) and Pune (151). Bengaluru is rated the lowest, amongst the surveyed Indian cities, ranked at 177.
Globally, Vienna occupies first place for overall quality of living for the eighth year running, with the rest of the top-10 list is mostly filled by European cities.
In South Asia, the Indian cities fare much better on quality of living compared to Dhaka in Bangladesh (rank 214), and Islamabad (rank 194), Lahore (rank 202) and Karachi (rank 204). Colombo, the capital city of Sri Lanka however has emerged as the top ranker in South Asia, with a score of 132.
--IANS
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