Business

Kochi loses race for metro tag

KOCHI: Pune is set to join the league of six metropolitan cities in India, developing at a fast pace and providing infrastructure facilities, friendly business environment, education avenues and employment opportunities, according to an ASSOCHAM Eco Pulse study.

The rising appeal of Pune is evident from its highest real estate prices and maximum population among the other upcoming cities.

The AEP study on ‘The 7th emerging metro city in India’ analysed four tier II cities including Pune, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Chandigarh ranking them on eight parameters necessary for a metro city. They included social infrastructure, infrastructure availability, real estate cost and availability, transportation facility (connectivity), presence of quality educational institutes, employment opportunity, facility of financial services and business environment. Kochi, considered by many people as an emerging metro, failed to figure in the rankings.

In the study, Pune came first though it needs to improve on transportation, social infrastructure and financial services.

Ahmedabad was the second most potential city providing good infrastructure and connectivity. Lucknow was in third place as it needs to pick up on infrastructure, business environment and social infrastructure.

Chandigarh, the smallest city among the four in terms of size and population was ranked fourth though it topped in financial services and business environment.

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