NEW DELHI: A few hours of rains have inundated two cities that are the showpieces of India’s tech story, crippling life and once again exposing the country’s shabby infrastructure and the risks that poses to its image as an investment destination.Businesses in Gurgaon recorded thin attendance on Friday after thousands spent hours on flooded roads the previous evening waiting for traffic jams to clear. In Bengaluru , where several localities were under waist-deep water on Friday, normal business in the IT hub of Electronic City was affected, but elsewhere it wasn’t that bad with companies such as ecommerce firm Flipkart reporting almost full attendance, though many reached late.In Gurgaon, the 'Millennium City’, companies such as KPMG, Bharti Airtel, MakeMyTrip, Coca-Cola, Genpact, Ericsson and PwC India asked staff to work from home on Friday. This has caused a massive loss of productivity, said executives."There is nothing millennial about the city," said Ashish Kashyap, CEO at Ibibo Group.Kashyap said it took him an hour and 15 minutes on Friday night to reach home that was a mere five minutes’ drive. "Such a small amount of rain has brought the city to a standstill. It will harm investments in the region going forward. I find it very embarrassing to invite international visitors at this time when the infrastructure is so bad."Gurgaon is the India home to many multinationals, and their concern isn’t only towards the loss of productivity. With poor street lighting, open manholes and the possibility of exposed electric wiring, they are worried also about employee safety. The flooding was caused by what a weather scientist called moderate rains — Gurgaon got 5 cms of rains in the 24 hours ending 8:30 Friday morning, according to the India Meteorological Department. Unless these infrastructure issues are addressed, it could hamper investment into Gurgaon, warned MNC executives."Gurgaon is the highest revenue generator for a state like Haryana . Given the expansion of the millennium city, relevant authorities need to take note of all such challenges and take measures to create the right support system for corporates," said Sergey Savchenko, CEO at telecom company MTS India.At MakeMyTrip, several employees took more than six hours to reach home on Thursday night and some had to spend the night in hotels. Swedish network equipment maker Ericsson said its employees were stranded for three-four hours on Thursday."Such incident of basic infrastructure not functioning optimally has unfortunately projected us in bad light, especially in the eyes of international investors and expats who have been living and working in Gurgaon," said MakeMyTrip Group CEO Deep Kalra. He blamed poor drainage as the main culprit for Friday’s waterlogging.At Yatra Online, half the employees didn’t turn up on Friday. A lot of productivity loss has happened, said company President Sharat Dhall. "It is appalling that this city which has had so many multinationals for the last 10 years, hasn't been able to get basics like this right," he said "Why should the administration only look at short-term measures?"Akhil Bansal, deputy CEO at KPMG in India, advocates a longterm strategy to prevent water logging and to ensure a smooth flow of traffic. On Gurgaon, he says the city needs to transform.With no respite in sight from traffic jam on Friday morning, companies in Gurgaon actively asked employees to work from home.Yum! Restaurants India issued a work from home advisory and asked those who reported on Friday morning to leave early.Airtel has issued an advisory on likely traffic problems in and around Gurgaon, while MTS asked all employees at its corporate office in Gurgaon to leave by 2 pm. Coca-Cola resorted to flexi-work options. "We already have a flexi work policy so employees are using that. They don't compulsorily have to come to office," said a company representative.At Genpact, there were delays in drops and pickups, but the company communicated to employees regularly about the crisis. "In possible scenarios, employees are being encouraged to work from home instead of commuting to office. Having said that, the situation is really difficult and the urban infrastructure must improve for big companies like ours to be able to function seamlessly," said Vidya Srinivasan, senior vice-president for infrastructure & IT.(KR Balasubramanyam and Madhav Chanchani in Bengaluru contributed to this article)