‘IT belt in tech city is vulnerable’

‘IT belt in tech city is vulnerable’
DNA
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BANGALORE: The road from the backyard of the Hewlett-Packard leading to a main road, which is a gateway to many IT companies in the Electronic City in Bangalore, where most of its IT companies are located, is vulnerable to terrorists’ attack.

The roads leading to the sideways of Infosys and Wipro are unguarded and face grave danger. These are some of the findings of the ‘vulnerability analysis’ done by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and presented to IT companies last month. “It is clear that the Electronic City cannot consider itself free from threats and risks in the current security environment ranging, from simple thefts to acts of terrorist violence,” the report said. It made special mention of the fact that the periphery of the electronic city was open to terrorists and needed round the clock surveillance.

This IT belt of Bangalore, which consists of 120 companies earning Rs 10,000 crore of foreign exchange every year, is not safe even according to the police. As Soumendhu Mukherjee, deputy commissioner of police (South East) says, “There are blind spots in the electronic city, which are vulnerable to attacks.” Though the big companies have their security systems, the roads leading to them are unguarded, admit the managements.

“There is some risk to this belt,” said Achutan Nair, vice president, strategic resourcing of Wipro.

Bangalore has been a hideout of terrorist sleeper cells which are spread throughout the city, admits the police. Terrorists nabbed in the city have revealed plans to target IT bigwigs like Infosys, Hewlett Packard and Wipro.

The CISF report said, “The industries in the electronic city are facing serious threats, which have been revealed during the recent interrogations.

Some LeT militants, who were captured in New Delhi last year gave pointers to these threats.”

Bangalore enjoys a cosmopolitan culture. And terrorists use this very strength of the city to camouflage themselves and use it as their hiding place.