IT hub wakes up to traffic, pollution woes

10,000 vehicles off the roads; 2 lakh

man hours and 1 lakh litres of fuel saved

Hyderabad, September 21:  

The IT industry is known for its innovative, time saving, efficient solutions for a wide variety of challenges.

Now it appears that the sector has woken up to another challenge – traffic and environmental pollution that diminishes the quality of life of its employees.

The industry in Hyderabad employs 3.5 lakh and the city is among the top-5 in the country that accounts for $100 billion worth of IT exports.

But it has just realised the pressure it’s exerting on the city traffic and the impact of the additional carbon emissions to the environment.

A survey found that about one lakh man hours are being wasted each day with employees struggling to get to the offices, negotiating tough traffic.

So, as a start, about 11,000 IT employees are now taking public buses on Thursday to get to their offices in the Hi-Tec City-Gachibowli IT Hub of Hyderabad. Thousands of others car-pool, walk or cycle to their offices as part of an initiative by HYSEA, which represents firms that export IT services worth $10 billion.

“About 40,000 litres of fuel is being wasted each day, resulting in 96 tonnes of additional emissions of carbon dioxide. The numbers are staggering considering the small area,” Ramesh Loganathan, President of HYSEA (Hyderabad Software Exporters’ Association), told BusinessLine. And what it achieved over the month is encouraging.

Benefits aplenty

Most companies in the IT corridor reported reduction of up to 20 per cent of cars. Over 10,000 motor vehicles are off the roads each Thursday. The city is free of about 273 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

Enthused by the response to the Car-Free-Thursday initiative, the association is now planning to expand the scope.

It is going to ask companies to discourage staff coming in cars on Thursdays. It wants them to introduce parking fee and introduce a system of allowing cars with even or odd numbers.

The association has decided to lend its voice to the World Car Free Day that is slated to happen on September 22.

Hyderabad is among the 1,000 cities across the world that consented to join the movement.

In association with the Cyberabad police, Road Transport Corporation and other stakeholders, the HYSEA has come out with a vision document ‘Re-imagining Transport in Our Cities’.

“The idea is to promote sustainable transport and make Hyderabad a congestion-free and pollution-free smart city,” the document said.

The industry, with the help of the IT department of Telangana, is planning to develop necessary infrastructure to encourage the staff to use cycles.

“To begin with, we are asking hundreds of Car-Free-Thursday initiative volunteers to use cycle at least for a day or two to get to their offices,” Loganathan said. 

Original link

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/it-hub-wakes-up-to-traffic-pollution-woes/article7674697.ece?homepage=true

(This article was published on September 21, 2015)