Bengaluru flood caused loss of ₹225 crore as IT employees were stranded in traffic jam

The August 20 floods in Bengaluru caused a loss of about ₹225 crore on a single day, the Information Technology and banking companies said in their letter to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai seeking his attention to address the “appalling infrastructure” of the city.

In a letter to Bommai dated September 1, the Outer Ring Road Companies Association (ORRCA) said half-a-million professionals are employed along the Outer Ring Road (ORR) between Central Silk Board and Krishnaraja Puram corridor.

President of the ORRCA Manas Das and vice-president Archana Tayade said this corridor measuring about 17 km provides employment to close to one million people. ORR IT generates revenue of USD 22 billion per annum, which is 32 per cent of Bengaluru’s revenue, and is the highest tax contributor, they said.

The poor infrastructure on this corridor, however, is bringing down the efficiency and productivity of the companies and putting employee safety and wellbeing at risk. Flooding on ORR on August 30 led to a loss of ₹225 crore as staff were stuck on the road for more than five hours, the ORRCA said.

The inadequate infrastructure on ORR has now reached a crisis-level. Even though only 30 per cent of ORR population has returned to working from office, the collapse of the infrastructure has drawn global concern over the city of Bengaluru’s ability to handle further growth the association said.

The office-bearers said the member-companies had to trigger emergency business plans and work from home or pass on critical work to locations outside of Bengaluru and Karnataka, thus causing a dent in the economy of the city and the State. “This situation continues…,” they said.

According to them, there were several examples of planned road infrastructure and initiatives being stalled which has only aggravated the issues on ORR. The ORRCA pointed out that in 2019, the then chief minister visited ORR and approved several projects to ease pressure on ORR traffic. However the progress has been slow. It is in the collective interest of ORRCA and the government that Bengaluru infrastructure issues are addressed with a short/midterm and longer-term view to sustain the growth, as these companies will seek alternate destinations if the situation does not improve.

The ORRCA demanded that a report should be published on the current gap in infrastructure and utilities that is unable to meet the demand of this corridor. They also asked the government to provide short-term, medium and long-term plan to address challenges with timelines and convene a joint coordination committee compromising on all civic authorities chaired by the Additional Chief Secretary to review infrastructure improvement plan versus progress in monthly coordination meetings.

The ORRCA appealed to the government to expedite improvement projects on key arterial roads to ORR such as Old Airport Road, ITPL Road and Varthur Road as they are regularly used by their staff and general public.