Suffered Rs 225 cr loss due to heavy rains: ORRCA in letter to Karnataka CM Bommai

Bengaluru: The Outer Ring Road Company Association (ORRCA) in Karnataka's Bengaluru on Thursday wrote to the state Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai mentioning that the firms in Outer Ring Road (ORR) have suffered a loss of Rs 225 crores due to the flood that followed heavy rainfall in the city.

ORRCA represents all major IT and Banking companies on the ORR stretch and estimates to have more than half a million professionals employed along the ORR between Central Silk Board and KR Puram corridor which with various support services and indirect employment, measures about 17 kilometres and is providing employment to almost one million people. "Poor infrastructure on this (Central Silk Board and KR Puram) corridor, however, is bringing down the efficiency and productivity of the companies and putting employee safety and well-being at risk. Flooding on ORR on August 30 has led to a loss of -INR 225 crores as staff were stuck on the road for more than -5 hours," the letter directed to CM Bommai read.

Mentioning that the inadequate infrastructure on ORR has now reached a 'crisis' level, the letter further read, "Even though only 30 per cent of ORR population has returned to working from the office, the collapse of the infrastructure has drawn global concern on the city of Bengaluru's ability to handle further growth Member companies who have made a substantial investment on the ORR," adding that the 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, which caused 'reputational and economic damage' to the city and the State.
This situation continues for the past 3 days and beyond, it read.

The letter also cited planned initiatives of road infrastructure that are being stalled and approved by Bommai to ease the pressure on ORR.
The ORRCA said that the project of detailed ORR metro timeline and the cleanup of any two of the Bellandur, Varthur, and Solkere lakes have been approved but remained unprogressed.
The association further urged the state government to address the issues with a short, midterm and long term view for "sustaining the growth as these companies (ones under ORRCA) would seek alternate destinations if the situation does not improve, it highlighted.
It also urged the government to convene a joint coordination committee compromising all civic authorities (DULT, BBMP BWSSB. BMTC, BMRCL, BTP etc.) chaired by the Additional Chief Secretary to review infrastructure improvement plan vs progress in monthly coordination meetings.

The development came a day after severe waterlogging was reported in Karnataka's Koramangala and Marathahalli on August 31 as a result of the heavy rainfall that lashed the city.
Heavy rainfall had caused waterlogging in several parts of Bengaluru and several trees were also uprooted on August 29.
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai during his visit to the flood-hit areas in Ramanagar district and the Outer Ring Road area-- where most of these companies exist-- had inspected the large-scale damage caused to crops due to the breach of Bakshi Lake in Maruti Layout in the city. (ANI)