TACKLING TRAFFIC - IT firms to staff:

Use the Metro when it starts, we’ll pick you up

The Millennium City registers more than 45,000 new vehicles every year.

More than 40,000 people, who work in various IT com- panies, commute to Gurgaon from Delhi daily.

Rather than waiting for the civic authorities to find a solu- tion to huge traffic jams, as a result of heavy traffic, a body of IT companies, including multinationals, is planning to take things in its own hands -- using a shuttle service to ferry their employees from the Metro stations.

Subinder Khurana, co-chair- man of NASSCOM Gurgaon Council, said IT companies and ITeS (BPOs and call centers) were the most affected entities due to the huge traffic jams. He claimed their productivity is hit with employees reporting to their workplaces late.

So, companies such as Genpact, Cognigent, IBM, American Express and other multinational IT firms have come together to form a `Cybercity Society' under the aegis of NASSCOM Gurgaon Council to address infrastructure issues.

“We have about 35,000- 40,000 employees who come to Gurgaon from Delhi every day.
About one lakh employees come to Gurgaon from Delhi on a daily basis for various pur- poses,“ he added.

The companies have already begun promoting the use of the forthcoming Metro service instead of cabs and buses to help reduce the traffic load in the city.

Gurgaon Police Commissioner S. S. Deswal said, “We already have 6 lakh registered vehicles and about 45,000 vehicles including cars, two and three-wheelers and trucks, are added to it every year. These vehicles need 2.75 lakh square metres of parking space which the city doesn't have.“

Recently, the police depart- ment, Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon, Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and NASSCOM Gur- gaon Council held a joint meet- ing to look for a solution to the poor physical infrastructure of the Millennium City.

The police commissioner had requested the civic agencies to do their bit by creating the required parking space.

“We are taking the number of police personnel from the existing 250 to 500 by October.
But more number of traffic policemen alone will not address traffic issues. We need broader roads and parking lots to ease traffic,“ he had said.

The civic authorities had said that 30 multilevel parking sites had been earmarked in Gurgaon. HUDA had said that a majority of the roads were being widened and slip roads were being created to decon- gest the crossings.