HYDERABAD: WITH major impact of the recent heavy rains felt mostly in Hitec City, Madhapur and parts of Serilingampally circle, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has asked the IT companies to adopt staggered timing for their employees to reduce traffic problems during the evening hours of peak traffic.
GHMC Commissioner M Dana Kishore on Tuesday met representatives of Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (HYSEA), National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) and Cyberabad Security Council to redress the commuter traffic inconvenience during heavy monsoon downpour between 4 pm and 6 pm in IT Corridor, Cyberabad.
The GHMC Commissioner will also be holding wider consultations with representatives of IT companies at Westin on Thursday to find solutions to traffic woes during the monsoon season.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Dana Kishore, said: “Around five lakh employees are working in IT corridors of Hitec city, Madhapur, the Financial District and other nearby places. During rainy days, when they complete their work, these employees leave their offices en masse, leading to traffic jams. Instead, they should wait for the rain to stop and only then leave their offices.”
Emphasising the gravity of situation at hand, he said, “There will be rains for the next 48 days, out of which 20 to 25 days are likely to witness heavy rains. So to avoid traffic jams, especially in the evenings, there is a need for these offices to adopt staggered timings. That will lead to their employees leaving their offices at different times and result in reducing the traffic jams.”
GHMC’s Disaster Relief Force opening a manhole to allow rainwater to flow on Tuesday
During his interaction, the Commissioner also explained to the IT firms’ representatives the measures that are being taken by the corporation to ease traffic jams during monsoon in Hitec City, Shilparamam and Madhapur, including the creation of percolation tanks and box culvert drains. These are coming up close to the critical inundation points in order to remove the stagnated water from the main roads.
Works on construction of percolation tanks have already started in Serilingampally zone covering parts of
IT corridor and in open places at Nectar Garden, Shilparamam, Madhapur, Biodiversity and Mindspace, he said. There are twin advantages with percolation tanks. Whenever there are rains, water from main roads will directly flow into these tanks. And they will also serve as rainwater harvesting pits and help in recharging of the groundwater table.
The GHMC Commissioner also informed that all mobile response teams will be equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) to track the vehicle movement of the respective teams. So that in the event of an emergency, the response teams can be tracked and diverted where their services are needed, he said.