With the agitations for Samakyandhra (United Andhra) intensifying, the information technology industry in and around Visakhapatnam is facing severe hardship.
While employee attendance has come down to 70 per cent at various IT units located within the city limits, the same has been reduced to 50 per cent at units on the city outskirts since the last two weeks.
“We are changing our project deadlines quite frequently. Besides, our operational costs are spiralling upwards of 20 per cent,” Deepak S Madala, president of Vizag Information Technology Association (VITA), said.
Stating that the government buses had gone off the roads since the last two weeks and that even the private buses had stopped plying now, he said employees who have their own facilities like cars and bikes were only able to make it to the offices.
“Some IT units located on the city outskirts are running their own buses to pick up their employees from the city. Now that these private buses are not operating, we are engaging taxies to pickup some important staff, resulting in our transportation costs increasing 30-40 per cent,” Madala said.
P Vishnu Kumar Raju, president, Rushikonda IT Park Association, said about 25 units operate in locations like Rushikonda and Duvvada, which are 18-25 km from the city.
The IT industry in Visakhapatnam employs over 8,000 people directly. Software exports from the city stand at about Rs 1,400 crore. Besides small and medium IT companies, large players like IBM, Wipro, HSBC and Tech Mahindra have their units in Vizag.
