Jams and Metro breakdown force Gurugram professionals to work from home
The snag on the Metro line at Chhattarpur station and, around the same time at 9.30 am, the breakdown of a truck near the Mahipalpur flyover blocked as many as two lanes of the Gurgaon-Delhi Expressway
Tuesday began on a sour note for commuters travelling between Delhi and Gurugram.
The snag on the Metro line at Chhattarpur station and, around the same time at 9.30 am, the breakdown of a truck near the Mahipalpur flyover blocked as many as two lanes of the Gurgaon-Delhi Expressway, causing severe traffic jams. Due to this, many corporate offices in the city saw employees miss work or reach office extremely late.
Megha Chopra, a recruitment professional, said that she was travelling from Uttam Nagar to her office in Sector 30 when the Metro service was disrupted. “The emergency doors of the Metro opened only 30 minutes later,” she said. “And even after walking for a long stretch, I could not find any auto-rickshaws or cabs.” After spending over two hours on the road facing long jams and being extremely late for work, she decided to return home.
Many other professionals faced a similar situation. Some corporate executives, realising that the situation was bad, ignored fixed timings, punch-in policies and mandatory clock-in hours required for the day.
Harsh Khanna, who works with a tyre manufacturing company in Sector 32, said, “I commute from Dwarka to Sector 32 daily. It usually takes me an hour to reach the office by car. Today it took me over two hours due to the truck breakdown near the Mahipalpur flyover. There seemed to be an endless jam from the flyover to the Cyber City.”
He said that his human resources(HR) department was sympathetic towards him.
In fact, witnessing the chaos that ensued, some companies took concrete steps to help their employees. A marketing and personal relations firm (that did not want to be named), located on MG Road, sent out their cabs to rescue employees stranded at Metro stations.
Khyati Behl, a senior member of a marketing team, said, “Three from my team alone could not make it to work today. Our HR department was supportive and gave people travelling from Delhi an option not to come to office and encouraged them to work from home.”
The commuter woes affected those headed to Delhi as well. Nitin Wali, an IT professional said, “I had an important official meeting at noon for which I left at 9.30 am. But I could cover just 10km in two hours. I asked my driver to drop me off at Arjangarh station. But there, I learnt that the trains were only operational till Sultanpur. There was absolutely no option left for me but to cancel the meeting. I took the Metro from Arjangarh to Huda City Centre and finally reached home by 1.30pm.”
Employees of IT companies, which do not have fixed timings, fared better as they didn’t have to report for a fixed shift.