On Earth Day, company CEOs walk to work in Gurgaon

Gurgaon, April 22 (IANS) Over 500 senior company executives Monday walked to their offices in Gurgaon in an initiative aimed at making the city free of congestion and pedestrian-friendly.

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) and Regional Council for Haryana had organised the "CEOs Walk to Work" initiative. Fidelity & Make My Trip anchored the event at their respective locations to mark Earth Day with an aim to encourage greater adoption of public transport and inculcate a habit of walking.

The walk started at 8:45 a.m. and passed though four routes -- Gateway Tower to Cybercity, Gateway Towers to Udyog Vihar, Huda City Centre Metro station to Unitech Cyber Park, and Moulsari Avenue metro station to Ambience complex.

"This is a start which will set the ball rolling for larger agendas like reducing pollution, limiting traffic on the road and popularizing use of public transport," said Deep Kalra, CEO, MakeMyTrip.

Added Sanjiv Rai, managing director, Rapid Metro: "Initiatives like Walk-to-Work will help highlight the importance of public transport and walking; which in turn will create a cleaner, greener Gurgaon. We identify with this cause closely as Rapid Metro strives to provide affordable, convenient and environment-friendly means of public transport."

This event saw overwhelming support from companies like IBM, MakeMyTrip, Fidelity, Evalueserve, Sunlife, HSBC, Annik Systems, Nagarro Software, Summit Information Technologies, Espire Infolabs, Softage, Hughes Systique, NTT Data services, Capgemini, GE, BlackRock, Colt, Accenture, Educomp and developers like Ambience & DLF.

Senior officials of the Haryana government and Rapid Metro also took part in the event.