Bengaluru’s IT companies face brunt of heavy rains, employees asked to WFH

Bengaluru, India’s innovation hub, was largely under water on September 5 as a result of the city being battered by severe rains, which also forced firms to ask employees to work from home. Companies like Amazon, Flipkart, and Wipro have offices in the city, where they all manage their logistics and other activities.

A number of companies, including Indian food delivery service Swiggy and Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs, asked staff to work from home, some employees told Reuters.

Due to severe flooding, social media advised commuters to avoid specific routes. Long traffic bottlenecks and wading through waist-deep water were depicted on local television.

Authorities dispatched rafts to evacuate Bengaluru residents as the city continued to be pummelling by torrential rain, flooding numerous areas of the city, as per reports. The areas that have been most negatively impacted are Outer Ring Road, Sarjapur Road, BEML Layout, Bellandur and Whitefield.

The chief minister of Karnataka, Basavaraj Bommai, has informed IT companies that a discussion will be held over the estimated loss of ₹225 crore brought on by rain and waterlogging in Bengaluru. He committed to getting in touch with them to talk about the damages and compensation they were forced to pay for as a result of the flooding and rain in the state capital.

“We will call the IT companies and speak with them related to the issues that they are facing due to waterlogging. We’ll also discuss the compensation and other related damages that have been caused due to rain.”

It follows the chief minister’s request from IT businesses to resolve the outer ring road issue. One of the locals claimed that waterlogging had occurred as a result of the severe rain, making driving extremely challenging.

“Too much rain has taken place. We woke up in the morning and saw that waterlogging had started. Water on the road had come up to the level of the divider. After that, we started pumping water out of the road and basement. My whole basement has got submerged under water,” a local resident said. Livemint