Software companies gear up for monsoon

Software companies gear up for monsoon
Vijay Times

HOW can Bangaloreans forget the destruction that incessant rains caused last year? For many , last year’s monsoon was a nightmare as drains got choked, houses got flooded, roads got blocked and buildings collapsed .

Residents, especially in H S R layout, Puttenahalli, J P Nagar , Bhadrappa layout o Hebbal Ring Road and officegoers, whose offices were situated near Hosur Road, were put to extreme hardship.

With this year’s monsoon round the corner , B BV VT T finds out how prepared the administration is to handle the situation, if the Ci receives the same amount of rainfall that i received last year . B BV VT T also spoke to residents in different areas in the City to learn ab their problems.

POLICE SPEAK

The Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), T raffic (East), M A Saleem, said, "W e have prepared a list of locations in the City which have drains that need to be repaired and desilte before the monsoon. W e have forwarded the list to the Bangalore City Corporation (BCC) and have asked them to take up work in these areas immediately ." "The traffic chaos that the City witnessed last year , following continuous rainfall, wa mainly due to water logging in different locations. If the drains are repaired properly , problem of water logging can be avoided. This will help resolve the problem of traffic co gestion as well," he added.

RESIDENTS ’ WOES

Residents in the fourth and seventh sectors of H S R layout were among the worst hit las year .

"The problem with H S R layout is that it does not come under the BCC limits. The City M unicipal Corporation has turned a deaf ear to our regular pleas. Though they carried out some repair work in drains after last year’ heavy showers, the area has not improved much," said Nagashree Bala, a resident of H S R Layout.

Madhu Rao, another resident of H S R Layout said, "The area is not yet ready to face the monsoon this year . A little repair work was done on drains last year after the area wa completely marooned for over a week. But this won’t help in anyway as a lot more needs to be done."

PUTTENAHALLI ON THE SAME TRACK

Residents of Puttenahalli also complained of the same sad state of affairs.

It may be recalled that Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy , during an inspection of Puttenahalli in March, had said that the St go vernment would set aside Rs 12 crore for the o verall development of the area. This included work on storm water drains and sewage valleys. But till date, no concrete steps have been taken in this regard. "W e still haven’t forgotten the horrors of last year , when our houses were flooded for weeks. The SWDs should be remodeled on a war-footing," said Sushma Rao , a resident of the area. The Puttenaha lake should first be deweeded to avoid a similar catastrophe like last year , she added.

"The work of remodeling SWDs was started only a few days back in some areas. It is going on at a slo w pace. I think this time too , we wil have to face the brunt of the monsoon," sa Ganeshan R, another resident of Puttenahalli.

It may be recalled that the torrential downpour last year did not spare even the IT sector . Many software companies were flooded, with water entering the basement and ground floors. Employees had a tough time getting in and out of their offices as buildings had six to seven feet of rain water in them. So this year , companies are gearing up to face the situation. Those in the administration department of HTMT , located on Hosur Road, said the company had taken some initiatives to face the monsoon. An official from the administration department, said, "We have shifted all ground floor operations to a different building and the power room to the first floor ." A senior official from Accenture said, "We have not really planned anything as of now . We will do some thing if things go out of control during rains." Prashanth N, a software engineer , said, "This monsoon, I will opt for the office vehicle. I cannot risk taking my vehicle out. I had a bitter experience last year as I walked almost eight kilometres with the entire Hosur Road stretch being blocked."