Pointing out the lack of basic infrastructural facilities, employees of Kochi’s InfoPark, one of the largest IT parks in the state, wrote a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The letter sent by Progressive Techies, an organisation of techies working in InfoPark, has said that there are no adequate basic facilities like public transport, parking facilities and good roads.
The letter dated February 15, states that lack of adequate public transportation is a major problem faced by over 50,000 employees of the IT park.
“Since there are only a few bus services to InfoPark, the majority of us depend on private vehicles. This has created the problem of increased traffic in the area. We therefore request that a Kerala State Road Transport Corporation’s depot be started near the IT park,” states employees in the letter. The employees have also suggested in the letter that the vacant plot owned by Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) near InfoPark could be used for the bus depot.
TNM had earlier written about the pathetic condition of public transport facilities in suburbs of Kochi city, including InfoPark.
The employees have also pointed out the dilapidated condition of the road. “Lakhs of vehicles pass through Kakkanad-InfoPark PWD road daily. But because of its bad condition, traffic jams are frequent in the area. So we request to re-tar the road in a national level quality,” Anish Panthalani, president of Progressive Techies states in the letter. The employees also state that there is a lack of sufficient parking facilities.
The employees have also requested the Chief Minister to extend the proposed water metro project of Kochi Metro Rail Limited to InfoPark region. “At present the boat service of State Water Transport Department from Vyttila is till Rajagiri School, if this can be extended to InfoPark, many employees can conveniently make use of it,” the letter states.
Progressive Techies have also raised a demand that rainwater harvesting facilities should be implemented in the buildings of the IT park. Recently, InfoPark had faced an acute water crisis and the need for rainwater harvesting has been surfacing after that. Many companies were forced to temporarily shut because of the water scarcity.
The employees have also demanded that a medical centre be created in the IT park, by associating with either Ernakulam General Hospital or Kalamassery Medical College.