ORRCA complains to Bommai over losses due to poor infra

ORRCA represents all major IT and banking companies on the ORR stretch and estimates to have over a million professionals employed along the ORR between Central Silk Board and KR Puram corridor which measures about 17 kilometres.

Days after the Outer Ring Road Company Association (ORRCA) wrote to Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai complaining of losses due to poor quality of infrastructure, the CM on Sunday said that he will meet the members at the earliest.

Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai (PTI)

ORRCA represents all major IT and banking companies on the ORR stretch and estimates to have over a million professionals employed along the ORR between Central Silk Board and KR Puram corridor which measures about 17 kilometres.

“I will convene a meeting shortly,” Bommai said while replying to a query about the letter written by the ORRCA.

“ORR- IT generates a revenue of $22 billion per annum (32% of Bengaluru’s revenue) and is the highest tax contributor, however the lack of focus on development of the infrastructure in this corridor is appalling,” read the letter, dated September 1.

“Poor infrastructure on this corridor is bringing down the efficiency and productivity of the companies and putting the employee safety and well-being at risk. Flooding on ORR on August 30 has led to a loss of ₹225 crore as the staff were stuck on the road for more than five hours. Inadequate infrastructure on ORR has now reached a crisis level. Even though only 30% of ORR population has returned to working from office, the collapse of the infrastructure has drawn global concern on the city,” the letter said.

Recent rains brought the IT hub to its knees as poor quality of infrastructure, bad roads, delayed construction of Metro, inadequate bus connectivity, water logging and other problems threw the life out of the gear for its over 12 million residents.

“In addition, member companies had to trigger emergency business continuity plans and work from home or pass on critical work to locations outside of Bengaluru and Karnataka, thus causing reputational and economic damage to the city and the state,” the letter said.

The Karnataka government and civic agencies like the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike continue to blame the rains for the mess but have rarely explained their own role in trying to find long-term solutions to these recurring problems.

The Karnataka government has now stated that it will clear all encroachments on Storm Water Drains (SWD) that will allow the rain water to flow freely and avoid clogging but has not responded to why these dwellings, which include large apartments and buildings, were allowed to come up in first place.

The ORRCA said that its requests on the same problems have gone unanswered since 2019.

“Companies in the ORR area say that if the roads are not fixed, they’ll leave. It’s an understandable sentiment. And some are already doing it. But what democracy needs is a little different — if the government can’t fix the roads, it should be leaving, not the people or businesses,” Ashwin Mahesh, an urban infrastructure expert said.

“A long list of fixes needed at various roads and several intersections has been presented to the government repeatedly. But not a lot has changed. With Metro construction coming up, the nightmare is about to get worse, if that is even possible,” he added.