Gurgaon's 'Car-Free Day' debuts with traffic jams, towing

While Gurgaon's first 'Car-Free Day' got a thumbs up from some commuters, many people slammed it on Twitter and posted pictures of traffic jams in the city on Tuesday morning.

While Gurgaon's first 'Car-Free Day' got a thumbs up from some commuters, many people slammed it on Twitter and posted pictures of traffic jams in the city on Tuesday morning.

Bharti Arora, joint commissioner of police (traffic) rides a bicycle in Gurgaon on Tuesday. (Abhinav Saha/HT photo)

"#CarFreeDay! Definitely lesser traffic! Great initiative, can do wonders with better planning/partners," posted Ravi Bhaskaran @rbhaskaran on Twitter.

"It's neither a car free day nor is there a break from traffic jams," posted Tarique Anwer @tanwer_m.

The city observed 'Car-Free Day' on Tuesday to free the roads from traffic congestion and encourage people to use public modes of transportation. On-street parking was not available on Tuesday and many vehicles were towed away for flouting rules.

"'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 said.

"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.