KOCHI: Coming to work proved to be a nightmare for employees of Infopark here on Thursday as the acute water shortage on the campus continued for another day. The water supply was not fully restored despite the intervention of District Collector S Suhas.
Though the collector, who is in New Delhi for a meeting, allowed tanker lorries supplying water to Infopark to source the same from Kerala Water Authority hydrants and other water bodies – except abandoned quarries – it only provided temporary relief to many of the employees working on the 100-plus-acre campus.
The Thapasya, Vismaya and Carnival Infopark buildings were worst affected on Thursday by the water shortage. Many TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) employees working in the Vismaya building had to go all the way to the firm’s main building some 200m away for their needs.
Some firms also had a heated exchange with Carnival Infopark authorities over the water shortage as several of their employees left before office hours, affecting productivity.
“Many employees working in firms at Thapasya building opted to work from home on Thursday. Of those who worked, many left during office hours. The Carnival Infopark building and Vismaya were hit the worst as air conditioners were not working,” said a woman member of Progressive Techies, a non-profit organisation working in Infopark.
“Though water was supplied in tankers in some of the buildings after the collector intervened, we are not sure if it will be a permanent solution to the problem. I heard many employees working in Vismaya and TCS are not planning to come to work on Friday,” she said.
Raj Krishna, an official of Carnival Infopark, asked, “If the government is not providing basic facilities to companies, how is it going to boost the IT sector here?”
collector’s intervention brings relief to techies
Several employees were relieved to know that the collector had allowed lorries to take water from other water bodies and not just KWA hydrants for supplying water to Infopark. “Many cafeterias are using reusable paper plates to save water. However, everyone has used the water stored in the fire tanks and the situations will normalise only after two-three days of water supply. A permanent solution is possible only when Kinfra starts pumping water from the Kadambrayar,” said an employee of Infopark.