Employees battle 14-hour daily grind

While it is intolerable to be stuck in a traffic jam for a few minutes, Information Technology (IT) employees suffered the agony for over six hours thanks to the dismal condition of roads on their commute.

Employees cry foul over the condition of roads, especially the ones commuting from Kukatpally, Nanakramguda and adjoining areas. The employees lamented that for a work-day of eight hours it took them six hours to reach office!Employees met with snarled up traffic at all the prime areas including Rail under Bridge (RuB) near IDL Lake.

“The continuous rain made it impossible for us to commute. I was stranded at the Wipro signal for more than three hours due to the weather. Adding to the woes was the dug up ISB Road for municipal work, which escalated the traffic problem,” said Swati Reddy, an IT employee at a leading software company.

On an average, for an employee to reach his/her destination, the travel time has increased by two and half to three hours compared to the usual one hour. Narrow and deteriorated roads and the debris from the ongoing Metro Rail construction caused further distress to citizens.

MdZiauddin, Chief Engineer and Chief General Manager for Greater Hyderabad Municipal Cooperation (GHMC), said, “The area near RuB is under the Railway department’s jurisdiction and they are not allowing the GHMC to replace the constricted 3mm pipes with 9mm pipes. If that change is made the water logging issue will be curbed to a ‘great extent’.”

“The other road issues in the major locations near the IT hub are also being taken care of,” he added. “Nearly 20 per cent of the employees took ‘Work From Home’ optionto avoid rains,” said Ranga Pothulu, President of The Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (HYSEA). “Many employees couldn’t reach their offices on time and some of them even returned to their homes after being stranded for three to four hours in traffic.”

Despite taking the option, several couldn’t complete their work, as there was power failure in many areas of the city. “Working from home also wasn’t quite helpful for me because of the intermittent power cuts in my locality. This weather has caused a delay in my deliverables,” said Vennala, a software employee.

As Hyderabad boasts of itself as an IT hub, it pains to see the condition of its ‘mostvalued’ resources in monsoon, who cannot even reach at work safely.

By Tera Sneha Reddy