
As rains lashed Chennai under the impact of cyclone Michaung, several parts of the city were waterlogged. The IT hub in the city situated at the Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) was one among the many severely affected places. Some parts of the IT hub like Thoraipakkam, Sholinganallur and Perungudi received as much as 45 cm of rain on December 4, the maximum the city had received.
The IT corridor, which houses companies like Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Larsen and Toubro (L&T), Zoho, among others, is not new to distress in times of heavy rain. The industry also suffered heavy losses after the torrential rains in 2015. Several factors contribute to the flooding of the IT corridor including poor planning, encroachment of water bodies, and its proximity to wetlands and waterbodies.
Speaking to TNM, Alagunambi Welkin, the General Secretary of the Union of IT and ITES Employees, said that the IT corridor is poorly planned and does not have proper drainage systems in place. “As far as the IT corridor is concerned, the planning has been limited to the roads leading to it. A significant number of residential and commercial buildings in this area are built on large river beds and most of them are on [dried up] water bodies too. Proper drainage facilities have not been planned. I think these factors contribute largely to the disaster,” he said. He added that there needs to be a complete revamp of the infrastructure and the planning should involve people who are affected the most to avoid such disasters in the future.
Along with the boom in the number of IT parks, residential buildings began cropping up around them as well. Parthiban, the General Secretary of the Sholinganallur Housing Association’s Federation, believes that this also adds to the flooding experienced in the IT corridor. He said, “The population [around the IT companies] is automatically going to increase but there is little infrastructure to support it. There are no strong stormwater drains and drinking water facilities. But there seems to be no stopping the IT parks and apartments that are coming up in the already crowded area. These apartments are constructed in places where the rainwater is supposed to drain into other water bodies. There is no canal for the rain water.” Parthiban added that despite being in a similar situation in 2015, little lessons have been learnt.
Another reason put forth by experts behind the flooding of the IT corridor is its proximity to water bodies and their encroachment for construction of towering IT parks and residential complexes. Karapakkam, for instance, is 5 km away from the Perungudi lake while Chrompet is 2.8 km from the Chitlapakkam lake. Thoraipakkam, which is situated on the banks of the Pallikaranai wetland, also found itself heavily flooded during the initial spell of rains. Meanwhile, a part of Velachery also flooded as the lake overflowed.
A report by The Scroll in 2019 shed light on how the rapid urbanisation in the city had taken a toll on its water bodies. The report noted that the IT corridor was situated between the Pallikaranai wetland and the aquifer recharge zone, which ensures the maintenance of groundwater levels. An aquifer recharge area is a place where water is able to seep into the ground and fill rocks that can carry water. However, with the construction of several IT parks and residential buildings, both the wetland and the aquifer recharge zone were endangered. This made Chennai, particularly the IT hub, more prone to flooding as natural drains were covered by man-made buildings. At the same time, this unplanned construction also made the city vulnerable to water scarcity as groundwater was rapidly depleting.
S Janakarajan, a professor from the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), also blames the encroachment of the Pallikaranai wetland for the waterlogging in parts of the IT corridor. He said, “The wetland was originally 50 sq km but now it has come down to 5 sq km. This is also a low-lying land below the sea level so naturally there will be water stagnation. Earlier, when there was water flowing from upstream water bodies, it would be stored in the wetland but there is no room for that as well now. This water now spreads everywhere and creates a surplus problem. Apart from making the area more vulnerable to flooding, encroaching the wetland also creates groundwater pollution, health hazards, and results in the loss of a healthy ecosystem.”
When the city faced similar exponential rainfall and flooding in 2015, reports said that IT companies suffered a loss of $60 million. A Times of India report from 2015 said that large companies lost between $10-$50 million while the smaller ones recorded losses worth $5-$10 million. Big names like Cognizant, Infosys, and TCS had even arranged buses for employees to travel to Bengaluru to resume their work as the offices were not functional.
However, as the concept of remote working became more common after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, the IT industry seems more prepared for calamities than it was earlier.
Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, Partner at Catalincs, a tech growth advisory firm, said that nowadays, most companies have well-documented business continuity plans that are put in place several days before a calamity. Ramkumar, who has been in the IT industry for nearly 30 years, said, “These companies have globally networked workforces and ensure that people’s competencies are well distributed. Tech companies have strengthened their preparedness to calamities, natural or otherwise. For these companies, people infrastructure and the telecommunication structures are more important than a physical location. Even when the telecom structure breaks down, employees in another city might be able to pick up the work and ensure that the customer is not affected. Ten years ago, the situation might have been different but now, the large tech players know how to handle this.”
He further added that even investors are aware of the risks that can arise during a calamity and ensure that the continuity plans are triggered well in advance to minimise, if not eliminate losses.
However, Welkin is of the opinion that employees have more to lose during calamities like this which often go unaddressed. He said, “IT employees have been facing problems since day one. Even though the government provided directions to offer leaves to employees, they were expected to work from home. Some of them were even forcefully taken to hotels and were expected to resume work from there. Even in such a critical situation, these employees were not allowed to spend time with their family and had to fight [with the management] to go back to their homes. During heavy rains, the commute would easily take an hour as most roads would face congestion. Even after this lengthy travel time, people would be expected to log in and work,” he said.