The city offers the maximum number of and most affordable travel options compared with the other metros in the country.

This is the finding of a study done across 20 cities — covering over 43,000 respondents — by Ola Mobility Institute, a research and outreach arm of the app cab aggregator Ola.

The report — a synopsis of which, titled Ease of Moving Index, 2018, has been made available to the news media — is set to be released this month.

“Kolkata has the most to offer in travel choice; that too the most affordable,” the synopsis states and goes on to list the options — Metro, tram, bus, ferry, taxi, auto and rickshaw.

“The report answers how easy it is to move in any city and how cities should move in the future,” said an Ola spokesperson.

All metros in the country — Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Calcutta — were part of the study .

Calcutta’s score is the highest — 6.05 on a scale of one to 10 — in cleanliness in public transport. The city’s score for affordability is highest, too — 6.25.

“According to our respondents, the Calcutta Metro, despite being the oldest, is still the cleanest,” said the spokesperson. And the fares are more economical than, say, Delhi, which comes a close second with a score of 5.91.

“Metro fares in Calcutta are cheaper than in Delhi,” said Baisakhi De, who works in Delhi and visits hometown Calcutta on holidays.

In use of public transport, Chennai has scored the highest (7.41) and Mumbai the lowest.

Calcutta has come third with 6.2, after Hyderabad, which has scored 6.58.

The study, however, has pointed out that use of public transport has increased in Calcutta with a rise in shared mobility.

“Now, more commuters are using mass transit after being assured of last mile connectivity offered by shared mobility,” a transport professional said.

As for safety in public transport, Delhi has come first with a score of 6.24. “That is because Delhi Metro is the longest and yet the safest,” the Ola spokesperson said. Calcutta has ranked third among the metros.

“I am not surprised,” said Chaya Ghosh, a sales executive who commutes daily between Garia and Esplanade by Metro. “There have been too many cases of assault in Metro. And we all know how unsafe crowded buses are in the city.”

The Ola spokesperson said a city-wise analysis would be presented in the report. “Parameters such as shared mobility, safety, first and last mile connectivity, digital transactions, affordability and sustainable mobility have been evaluated,” he said.