Work For Home For All IT Employees In Bengaluru Till December, 2022: Why Does Govt Want WFH?

In an advisory sent by the Additional Chief Secretary of the Department of Electronics, IT & Biotechnology (Karnataka) to industry body Nasscom, dated August 21, it advised all companies and tech parks located along Bengaluru’s Outer Ring Road (ORR) to continue working from home until December 2022.

The Karnataka government mentioned in the letter that due to the ongoing Metro work in the area, resuming work from office would add to the traffic congestion in the ORR region, as the latter house about 9-10 tech parks with 700 to 800 companies. Over 1.5 lakh employees worked in the area before the pandemic.

This measure is considered to reduce congestion in the area, as the ORR region is known to have perennial traffic congestion, despite having 6 lanes and service roads.

The advisory sent by the Additional Chief Secretary E V Ramana Reddy, highlights that extending WFH is only a suggestion to the industry body and the companies located in the ORR area can continue to work from office.

The government also asks companies to encourage employees to use various transport options like buses or cycle to work to reduce the congestion.

For this, it (government) has implemented Bus Priority Lanes (BPL) and safe cycle lanes to provide an alternate option of commuting for employees passing through ORR.

KA Govt Advises Bengaluru Cos to Extend WFH

The construction work for Metro has started from Silk Board to KR Puram and KR Puram to the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru, by the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL).

In order to reduce the traffic congestion amid the ongoing metro construction work, Additional Chief Secretary E V Ramana Reddy wrote a letter to the regional director of Nasscom, which reads, 

“We would like to bring to your notice that BMRCL is starting Metro construction works on Outer Ring Road (ORR) from Central Silk Board to KR Puram and construction of the same could extend to about 1.5 to 2 years. The ORR houses many large Tech Parks and IT company campuses and carries a large amount of traffic throughout the day.”

The commissioner of Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT), V Manjula stated that the advisory may come off as an advice to extend work from home. Whereas, it is only a suggestion that the companies encourage employees to use various transport options like buses or cycle to work.

“It would be extremely difficult to manage traffic movement on ORR, especially if the IT companies resume work from the office,” added the letter.

Reddy stresses that the advisory was based upon the suggestions from the DULT and companies are free to resume work from offices if necessary.