GMDA draws up plan to improve living standards in Gurugram

The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) has issued a list of 42 key performance indicators under 11 themes, keeping which as base, the authority will work on how better services can be provided to the residents of the city, said officials on Thursday.

Sudhir Rajpal, chief executive officer of GMDA, said, “The main idea is to improve the services and facilities provided by the authority and live up to the expectations of the citizens of Gurugram. We have formed these indices after consultations and interactions with the residents as to what all changes are most critical for them. For every parameter, we will conduct a baseline survey to understand where we stand and then work towards achieving the desired level.”

The GMDA chief said that by the end of this month, an agency will be hired to conduct the baseline survey, but no timeline has been set by when the survey will be completed.

The 11 different themes include mobility, water supply and sewage, drainage, power and clean energy, urban environment, waste management, affordable housing, affordable health, educational and skill development, safety and emergency services, and government responsiveness.

An official document released by the authority in this regard states, “In order to develop common framework for Gurugram Metropolitan Area to assess existing status and their pathway towards providing a better quality of life to the citizen, GMDA has developed the standards of livability through a consultative mechanism for Gurugram Metropolitan Area (GMA) that can form the basis for development of the plans and resource allocations.”

Under the parameter of mobility, for example, authorities will ensure that 38% of the vehicles on the road are public transport to give more people access to transport facilities. Under the parameter of water, the authority will track key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the city’s liveability like percentage of households that receive up to 135 litres of clean water per person, percentage of sewerage treated to levels set by the Central Pollution Control Board, percentage of properties connected to sewerage, and percentage utilization of tertiary treated wastewater.

Under the parameter of ‘urban environment’, the KPIs include percentage of sectors covered by functioning air quality monitors reporting PM2.5 and PM10 air quality publicly, number of annual days of ‘good’ air quality, per capita availability of green spaces within the city, among others.

For affordable health, the authority will focus on number of hospital beds available per 10,000 residents and percentage of affordable hospital beds in the city. The authority is aiming to ensure availability of 25 beds per 10,000 population.

“With these parameters, the authority has set a living standard for people of Gurugram, the basic necessities that must be available in the metropolitan area. Based on these parameters, plans for different departments will be published and that will be used as a framework for future development work. The plans will be followed in a phase-wise manner and the departments will have their own timelines for achieving the targets,” said Bhuvnesh Kumar, chief town planner, GMDA.