Contributing factors include the high real estate prices and a large population base as compared to other upcoming cities. The study was carried out in 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.
Pune occupied first position overall though it needs to improve on transportation, social infrastructure and financial services. Ahmedabad was the second most potential city providing good infrastructure and facilities and connectivity. Lucknow was placed with third rank as it needs to pick up on infrastructure, business environment and social infrastructure.
Chandigarh, the smallest city among the four in terms of area size and population was ranked at the fourth position though it was ranked foremost in financial services and business environment.
Known as the Queen of Deccan, Pune with maximum number of malls and multiplexes (26) and star category hotels (25) notched the top position in terms of infrastructure parameters. The second rank was occupied by Ahmedabad, with the city having 25 malls & multiplexes and 17 star category hotels. Chandigarh and Lucknow was placed at 3rd and 4th position respectively
Incidentally, there has been an exponential growth in wine consumption in Pune too. According to an earlier article in www.delhiwineclub.com it enjoyed an increase of 62 percent sales of wine in the first quarter of 2007-08, as compared to the same period last year. The excise records show a sale of 10,000 cases of 9 liters each in April-July in 2007 compared to 6,100 during the same period in 2006.
The existing metropolitan cities are Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. |