Karnataka Govt Issues Advisory to IT Firms to Extend Work-From-Home Facility Till Dec 2022

BENGALURU: In order to minimise the traffic congestion in the Outer Ring Road (ORR) of Bengaluru, the Karnataka Government has issued an advisory to the IT firms to extend the work-from-home facility for their employees till the end of December, 2022.

The Outer Ring Road area of Bengaluru is dense with several IT firms and Tech Parks, therefore, the recent commencement of metro construction in the area is anticipated to give rise to a huge traffic.

The Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has already begun work on the lengths between Silk Board and KR Puram which is estimated to take about 1.5 to 2 years. "The ORR, despite having 6 lanes and service roads, is infamous for its perennial traffic congestion," E.V. Ramana Reddy, Additional Chief Secretary of the Department of Electronics, IT & Biotechnology, wrote to the regional director of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM).

Reddy also clarified that the advisory which was initially perceived as a compulsion by several companies was but a mere suggestion to contain the heavy traffic issues in the ORR area. Furthermore, he also urged maximum circulation of the advisory and asked the IT companies to encourage their employees for using public transport.

However, this advisory by the Karnataka Government was not welcomed by many firms and as a result, Krishna Kumar Gowda, a consultant of Outer Ring Road Companies Association (ORRCA) said that they have requested the government to issue a revised advisory.

Gowda added that many companies in the Outer Ring Road want their employees to work from their respective offices and feared that the metro construction work might not be completed any sooner than December 2025 in compliance to the detailed project report issued by BMRCL.

Around 800 firms along the stretch employ up to 1.5 lakh IT workers in the ORR area. Therefore, traffic congestion along this stretch will become more prevalent if IT firms begin work from their individual offices, since metro work will also resume, and portions of the roadways will be closed as a result.

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