ar-free Tuesdays in Gurgaon, starting September 22, coincides with the World Car-Free Day to promote use of public transport among commuters. Software companies, real estate houses, Rapid MetroRail Gurgaon and even private schools have come out in support of the concept directing their employees to ‘shun’ cars and offering buses and other logistics for the D-day.
Nagarro Software Private Limited, an IT company based in Gurgaon with over 2,500 employees, has announced a cent per cent car-free day wherein the company has restricted any kind of car usage (private cars, carpools, office shared cabs) for all its employees.
The company has commuters from all across the National Capital Region.
On the car-free day, the company is going to replace all its 200 office cabs with buses.
The company will be running metro shuttles from important metro stations to ensure connectivity.
Already, more than 70 people in the company usually commute daily to work on bicycles including the Chief Executive Officer Manas Fuloria, hence the company has been providing bicycles to motivate people residing within 10 km of the office to use cycles.
“Major innovation naturally involves disruption of old habits and methods. That is why we at Nagarro are embracing the disruption, not fighting it. So we are going 100 percent car free on the 22nd! We are sure this will spawn creative ideas for a new way of life,” said Mr. Fuloria.
Rapid Metro, which is a major stakeholder in the campaign due to low ridership, has decided to increase the frequency of trains from 5 minutes to 3 minutes to cater to increased ridership and also contributing 90 buses to provide shuttle services from Sikandarpur metro station, Cyber City, Vodafone metro station, Udyog Vihar and Dwarka-Udyog Vihar-IndusInd Bank metro station.
DLF, a real estate giant, has also come forward and decided to deploy its teams on the ground, both in Cyber City as well as Golf Course road to ensure the success of the car-free day.
“We are committed to supporting any initiative that will improve the lives of our citizens. We believe that this initiative should be sustainable in the long-term, for which permanent measures will be taken by constructing cycling tracks, footpaths, at grade crossings, bus bays along the entire stretch of Golf Course Road,” said Rohit Malik, Director (Estate), DLF Limited.
Several schools such as The Shri Ram School and Scottish High International School have also requested the parents using personal transport not to use cars to ferry their kids and instead shift to car pooling.
Even government agencies such as Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon and Road Transport Authority have pledged cranes and buses for shuttle services for the car-free day.
Leading the preparations for the day, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Bharti Arora informed that announcements were being made in the four corridors — DLF Cyber City, Cyber Park area, Golf Course Road and Electronic City in Udyog Vihar-IV — that no car parking would be allowed on roads on September 22.
“We have published pamphlets to be distributed among the employees of the companies in these four corridors. We have also put out FAQs on the Facebook page of the Gurgaon Police and a special Twitter account created for the car free day to disseminate information about the event. Three Deputy Commissioners of Police, five Assistant Commissioners of Police, five Station House Officers, five Traffic Inspectors along with a staff of 500-odd traffic policemen and 60 Road Safety Officers would be deployed across the city to make the event a success,” said Ms. Bharti.
Several schools in gurgaon have asked parents to not use cars to ferry their kids and instead shift to car pooling
Published - September 21, 2015 12:00 am IST
