Gurugram development body readies final draft for liveability index

GURUGRAM: After several delays, the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) has published the final draft of the liveability index with 11 indicators and 42 parameters that will be used as the basis for ascertaining the current standard of living in the city and defining the benchmark figures.

The 11 key performance indicators (KPI) against which the progress of the city will be evaluated include affordable health, mobility, urban environment, government responsiveness, safety and emergency services, education and skill development, drainage, waste management and water supply and sewage.

These are further divided into measurement indicators — for instance, the KPI for affordable health will be evaluated on the basis of the number of hospital beds available per 10,000 residents and the percentage of affordable hospital beds as compared to the total number of available beds in the city.

“In order to develop a 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 liveability through a consultative mechanism for Gurugram Metropolitan Area (GMA) that can form the basis for development of the plans and resource allocations,” said an official document accessed by TOI.

Officials said a total of 11 themes have been identified that fit in the current scenario of GMA. Against each theme, a list of tangible measurement indicators has been developed that will be used for setting future targets and assessing the efficacy of the allocated budget.

GMDA has set the benchmark for the affordable health indicator at 25, which means the city must have 25 beds per 10,000 residents. The document does not mention the current number of hospital beds. “A survey for calculating the current status of beds will be carried out soon,” said an official.

Similarly, in terms of government responsiveness, the measurement indicators include percentage of designated citizen services available online, percentage of citizens communications’ responded to within the government-prescribed response time and percentage of civic service grievances resolved. For the last measurement indicator, the authority has set a benchmark of 95%.

“We will measure it continuously over a period of seven days and the average of those seven days will be considered for the entire month. This is the final round of public consultations, following which the livability parameters will be approved and notified,” said the official.