What Gurgaon Should Do To Become A Livable City

While Gurgaon is known as India's private city (most public facilities here are provided by private players), and is the costliest city in the National Capital Region (NCR), a recent survey by a consultancy firm said it was less liveable than Noida. A reason cited for this was the cost of living. According to the survey, Noida has a lower cost of living, with a superior civic infrastructure.

Due to this, many people live in apartments in Noida, though they work in Gurgaon. A look at why despite being expensive, Gurgaon lags on the livability index and what it can do to improve this

1. Gurgaon is a costly city, where employment generation is high because there is a thriving private sector. For instance, in office absorption per capita, Gurgaon's performance is better than that of Noida. But, having a thriving private sector is not enough for a city to become livable.

2. The Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) performs the maintenance of roads and other infrastructure built by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA). But, the coordination between these two bodies is weak. There is less agreement between these two bodies than it is necessary to further urban development. Even though MCG is more efficient, it has less power, and in many cases it is not clear to residents of Gurgaon which body is responsible for the maintenance of infrastructure. With better co-ordination, Gurgaon can do better.

3. Private production of public goods in Gurgaon lead to negative externalities because the state government does not efficiently hold them accountable for their action. For instance, private providers of water dissipate ground water. Private sewerage lines contaminate water. Private providers of power supply pollute the environment and operates on such a small scale that they are not as efficient as they ought to be.

4. There is less coordination than it is necessary between various services. Nearly two third of Gurgaon is not connected to an official sewerage line. Similarly, because of a poor co-ordination, people who use private generators keep them idle much of the day because they have overinvested in them. As private producers of electricity pollute the city, the air in Gurgaon has more harmful particulates than in, say, Noida. For example, if there was a unified water and sewerage system, residents of Gurgaon would have taken it for granted that their sanitation needs would be met.

5. Private security thrives in Gurgaon. But, if private security was provided for large areas in Gurgaon instead of individuals separately, that would have allowed residents of Gurgaon to feel that they live in a safe locality.

6. Gurgaon deserves a much better transport system. If Gurgaon had a single agency for maintaining and building roads, building a better transport network would have been easier. As roads are a public good, Gurgaon, a city which adds tens of thousands of cars to the roads every year, has no incentive to not congest the roads. Gurgaon can sharply improve the quality of roads by having a better toll collection system.