No rush hour: Car Free Day observed in Gurgaon

Gurgaon, Sept 22: In an attempt to free the city roads from congestion and encourage people to use alternate modes of transportation, the Gurgaon traffic police on Tuesday observed 'Car-Free Day'.

The initiative was implemented as part of the World Car Free Day on Sept 22.

Gurgaon police commissioner Navdeep Singh Virk was seen riding a bicycle in the millennium city.

Elaborate arrangements were made by Gurgaon Police to make the initiative a success. More than 200 buses were deployed in select locations in the city to help commuters.

"'Car-free day' is not a new concept. World over it was started 22 years back and is held on September 22 every year. Gurgaon is experimenting it for the first time," Police Commissioner Navdeep Singh Virk told reporters.

"If the experiment is successful, we will observe every Tuesday as 'car-free day' in select locations. The idea is to take it to the weekly basis, because we are in a state where we actually require it because there is so much congestion on roads," he said.

People working in MNCs and big corporate offices including their CEOs have decided to use public transport today. Even cycles have been arranged at some locations for commuters

"Reduce congestion on the roads, reduce pollution. This is our request to the people to voluntarily give up their cars at least once in a week," Virk said.

A woman police officer said, "This is just a beginning. We have been working on this project for last 15-20 days. We have roped in people from corporate, schools and other walks of life. They have shown a lot of enthusiasm. From 'car-free Tuesdays we want to make it 'car-free everyday'.

"This is a superb idea. If Gurgaon could do it everyday, it would be a paradise. So, I think we shall adopt this car- free idea in our lives," said a Gurgaon resident.

Gurgaon Administration took the initiative to observe 'Car Free Day' and it was organised by Gurgaon Traffic Police and Gurgaon Municipal Corporation with support from NASSCOM, Embarq India, Raahgiri Foundation and Rapid Metro.

While the whole of Gurgaon celebrated this initiative from 7 am to 7 pm, four major IT corridors have been identified to make the campaign more concentrated - DLF Cyber City, Cyber Park area, Golf Course Road and Electronic City- which have the heaviest traffic flow in the city.

Meanwhile #CarFreeDay was trending on the micro-blogging website Twitter.

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