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On April 22, 2013, over 500 senior executives from various IT companies walked into their offices. Gurugram Under an initiative called ‘CEO Walk to Work’ to encourage greater use of walking, cycling and public transport.
Since then, public transport has improved – though still a developing one, Gurugram now has a city bus service while e-rickshaws plug the last-mile gaps. But walking to work remains as far-fetched a mission as it seemed in 2013 in a city with poor metro coverage and a growing number of cars.
Walk-to-work is an urban planning concept where housing complexes, offices and commercial areas are built in a cluster to reduce the need for people to use private transport. It is at the heart of sustainable development urban models that reduce road congestion as well as travel time.
Over the past decade, the city has seen initiatives like the Rahgiri movement to encourage people to walk to work as well as flags of administrations and policymakers failing to build walkable infrastructure. But civil movements have not received widespread policy support from the government.
Urban transport experts say Gurugram has missed out on an opportunity to be designed as a walk-to-work city due to poor planning and lack of vision to develop the ‘Millennium City’ as a place that incorporates all new models of urban design. Confined to its magnificent buildings.
Urban planners say Gurugram has developed in stages, dictated by real estate demand rather than infrastructure. Expensive plotted developments first came up in the early 1990s to cater to the needs of people who wanted to relocate from Delhi. A few years later, came the IT hub, followed by development office space that gave companies the option of having a base within half an hour of IGI Airport. This made the city a magnet for jobs, which in turn increased its population and encouraged group housing developments.
“So, residential areas near IT hubs were out of reach for most people who got jobs there because the rent was too high. And with no public transport, private vehicles became a priority as people had to commute between workplaces and go to malls as well as home,” he said with the development of the city. A planner involved said.
The city could have decentralized economic activity through a master plan that created the vision, but it didn’t. Instead, offices were concentrated in a few areas while residential development spread far and wide. Today, all these areas, which have taken the shape of new sectors, are filled, the need for improved public transport is felt more acutely than ever before. The vehicular explosion has made city roads extremely vulnerable to traffic jams.
In the recent past, there has been a minor overhaul with new residential areas and offices coming up along Golf Course Road. But the residential addresses of this road remain out of reach of most of the employees working in offices and commercial establishments.
As a result, walking is seen in the city as a fitness activity, which requires spending some time in the day rather than a component of the daily routine. “We are yet to realize the huge price we are paying in terms of air pollution, time wastage, energy wastage and wasted space in parking. Private motor vehicles. While other developed countries and globally While the city is going for walking, cycling and public transport, we are still focusing on flyovers and underpasses and private transport systems, which are wrong and short-sighted.”
#WeMake Gurgaon. Take a photo of a Gurugram walking experience that you like or want to change. And share on social media with #WeMakeGurgaon or www.toigurgaon.com
Since then, public transport has improved – though still a developing one, Gurugram now has a city bus service while e-rickshaws plug the last-mile gaps. But walking to work remains as far-fetched a mission as it seemed in 2013 in a city with poor metro coverage and a growing number of cars.
Walk-to-work is an urban planning concept where housing complexes, offices and commercial areas are built in a cluster to reduce the need for people to use private transport. It is at the heart of sustainable development urban models that reduce road congestion as well as travel time.
Over the past decade, the city has seen initiatives like the Rahgiri movement to encourage people to walk to work as well as flags of administrations and policymakers failing to build walkable infrastructure. But civil movements have not received widespread policy support from the government.
Urban transport experts say Gurugram has missed out on an opportunity to be designed as a walk-to-work city due to poor planning and lack of vision to develop the ‘Millennium City’ as a place that incorporates all new models of urban design. Confined to its magnificent buildings.
Urban planners say Gurugram has developed in stages, dictated by real estate demand rather than infrastructure. Expensive plotted developments first came up in the early 1990s to cater to the needs of people who wanted to relocate from Delhi. A few years later, came the IT hub, followed by development office space that gave companies the option of having a base within half an hour of IGI Airport. This made the city a magnet for jobs, which in turn increased its population and encouraged group housing developments.
“So, residential areas near IT hubs were out of reach for most people who got jobs there because the rent was too high. And with no public transport, private vehicles became a priority as people had to commute between workplaces and go to malls as well as home,” he said with the development of the city. A planner involved said.
The city could have decentralized economic activity through a master plan that created the vision, but it didn’t. Instead, offices were concentrated in a few areas while residential development spread far and wide. Today, all these areas, which have taken the shape of new sectors, are filled, the need for improved public transport is felt more acutely than ever before. The vehicular explosion has made city roads extremely vulnerable to traffic jams.
In the recent past, there has been a minor overhaul with new residential areas and offices coming up along Golf Course Road. But the residential addresses of this road remain out of reach of most of the employees working in offices and commercial establishments.
As a result, walking is seen in the city as a fitness activity, which requires spending some time in the day rather than a component of the daily routine. “We are yet to realize the huge price we are paying in terms of air pollution, time wastage, energy wastage and wasted space in parking. Private motor vehicles. While other developed countries and globally While the city is going for walking, cycling and public transport, we are still focusing on flyovers and underpasses and private transport systems, which are wrong and short-sighted.”
#WeMake Gurgaon. Take a photo of a Gurugram walking experience that you like or want to change. And share on social media with #WeMakeGurgaon or www.toigurgaon.com
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