Gurugram is the most suitable city to live in during Covid-19 times, considering factors such as population density, open area ratio and hospital infrastructure, said a report by Square Yards titled “Suitability Index: The COVID Perspective”.
The localities in Gurugram’s East zone such as sectors 52-56, 58, 40-44, 30, 24-27 are found to be the most suitable for living as per the index.
The need for one’s own ‘home’ has gained an all-new dimension since 2020, the report says, due to the changes brought in by the pandemic. This study is an attempt at making the home-buying process in the Covid era slightly more pragmatic.
The study throws light on the suitability of living and working in three prime cities in the country — Bengaluru, Mumbai and Gurugram with respect to COVID-19. However, Western and Central suburbs in Mumbai and Mahadevapura zone in Bengaluru were identified as more suitable.
The report says that factors such as population density, open area ratio and
hospital infrastructure are far more important than the distance from work or
affordability to decide where a homebuyer wants to live during Covid-19.
As per the report, the Covid-19 pandemic exposed the shortcomings in medical infrastructure like never before. Both Mumbai and Bengaluru were poorly placed in this regard with just 1.3 and 0.30 Covid hospitals available, respectively, per 10,000 people. Gurugram outshone both with 2.5 hospitals per 10,000 people.
Mumbai had 13 of the total 24 wards severely affected with more than 50 cases per 10,000 people. In Gurugram, the North and East zones averaged 55 cases per sq km while in Bengaluru four zones of the total eight recorded more than 200 cases per sq km.