Pothole City looks like a much more apt name for Bangalore – a place where it is impossible to drive to work without testing your vehicle suspension and vertebrae through a series of ::answers(potholes)::, so much so that there is no road in many places. What else to expect in a city where an enquiry commission unearthed Rs. 37.5 millions from just two engineers responsible for carrying out such work! And a government reluctant to take action against those engineers even after the discovery! Now we have a website dedicated to the potholes too.
While we are on the subject, here is what some of the IT company supremos think about the infrastructure.
We believe the problems are serious, Wipro will move work outside the city because of “quality of life issues”. I can’t have my employees sitting in traffic when they should be in the office. Employees pay heavy amount for lousy lifestyle. This city has nothing to offer. We will grow at a much faster rate outside Bangalore, we had enough.
- Wipro Chairman, Azim H. Premji
The City has collapsed ! It sucks !
- Bob Hoekstra, chief executive of the Philips Software Center.
Bangalore’s IT sops are common knowledge now – one has to be dumb enough to invest here. The city is not dying, it’s dead. We don’t recruit slaves, we recruit employees who want to live in a better surrounding with a decent lifestyle. We care for our employees. We are moving.
- G.S. Wilson, DS Computer Systems.
There is zero focus, no hand at the wheel.
- Infosys Chief Executive Nandan M. Nilekani.
Bangalore’s infrastructure is “deteriorating” with potentially disastrous results.
- Mike Weston, managing director of Logica, British software Company.
Yes ! We will be out of this city soon. It will not be a bad idea to send couple of Corporators, MLA`s, MP`s to Gurgaon, Mumbai or Hyderabad to understand what infrastructure means? One has to destroy this place and build it again. This is not a city.
- Jack Anderson, Nova-Soft
Bangalore’s roads as simply “miserable” and bad roads are now the bane.
- Infineon Technologies (Germany)
Bangalore is headed backwards. The growth in this city is a distant dream. It was just business money that kept the city going, and now that will stop. Politicians do not bother about IT because IT companies do not contribute to party funds. There is no life left in this city.
- Aditya Krishna, Synergy Solutions, Birmingham
Bangalore’s weaknesses are poor infrastructure, booming traffic and potholed roads. This place is ridiculous. While our biggest partner is Shanghai, Bangalore is still far far behind. We have received only three papers by the government in the last five years. Do these people know anything about road maintenance, traffic management solutions and uninterrupted power supply ? Collaboration on IT-related fields with Bangalore is out of question. Australia might consider New-Bombay or Gurgaon
- Andrew MacIntyre, Director of APSE, LAFIA-Delegate.
This city is out. Bangalore’s chaotic traffic, bad roads, sad lifestyle and the lack of well-connected mass transport facility is bound to have a direct impact on the IT companies that operate in the city: factors like road-rage, fatigue, and longer commuting time affect an employee’s productivity.
- Sumankumar R., Economy-Analyst
