Rage Over Bumpy Road To Infobahn

Led by Arvind Kasargod, chairman of VXL Instruments, Ashok Jagtiani, managing director of Sealtite Dichtungs, Mohandas Pai, financial advisor of Infosys, the executives registered their protest through this unusual shramdan.

"If the government fails to construct these roads by December-end, we shall resort to drastic action such as an industrial bandh, or stop paying taxes or power bills," said Riaz Tareen, president of the Electronic City Industrial Association.

The Electronics City bristles with blue-chips like Infosys, VXL, Bifora, Motorola, Hewlett Packard, Tata Electronics, 3M, Fanuc & Moog.

The Bommasandra Industrial area houses companies such as Kirloskar AAF, Shetron, Biocon, Coates of India, and Lee Jeans.

 

Other companies situated along this stretch are SKF Bearings, Biocon industries, Victory Glass, Novell Netware, MICO and Ultra Fabs Pvt Ltd.

over 600 companies have formed the "Hosur Road Action" group and submitted a memorandum to the government.

"All our efforts to move the various government departments have failed and now we are constrained to behave in this fashion to draw the government's attention with this drastic move," said Rashmi N Thakeria, managing director of Natural Textiles Ltd.

Over past four years, these company executives have suffered in silence living on hope that the Rs 47 crore four-lane Bangalore-Hosur expressway project -- flagged off with fanfare on April 1992 -- would be completed by April this year as scheduled.

The project, to be constructed by Larsen & Toubro and funded by the ADB, looks to be a distant dream now.

Four years down the line, just parts of the four-lane carriageway has been completed, largely because of land acquisition problems.

"Actually, the project has been held up for various reasons such as overhead lines, KEB poles and repeater stations blocking the progress. If the different government organs work together the project can be completed on time. Meanwhile, all these companies will be roughly losing around Rs 750 crore annually wasting time on these roads," pointed out Mohandas Pai of Infosys.

Software professionals who are intent on building information highways do not relish the prospect of jolting down a stretch of pre-historic roadway.

Pai says they lose two hours everyday commuting on this road -- and that's a lot of money because software professionals' time is valued by the hour ($ 20 by hour).

"The city is being built on the software companies and the government does nothing in return for them," chips in Ashok Jagtiani, president of the Bommasandra Industries Association.

"Nearly Rs 5,000 crore of investments have gone out of Karnataka to Maharashtra because of lack of power, roads and telephones," he continued.

Reeling from power cuts and short water supply, the companies have also to contend with bad roads, the protesters complained.

Shouting slogans like "We want roads", they carried placards which said, "There is an infobahn at the end of this potholed bahn" or "Rock 'n roll on Hosur Road".