Bengaluru, August 25: The Karnataka government on Tuesday urged IT companies to extend the work from home option for employees to December 2022 keeping in view of traffic congestion on Outer Ring Road due to the Bengaluru metro construction work.

In its letter to the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), the Department of Electronics, Information Technology said, "BMRCL is starting metro construction works on Outer Ring Road (ORR) from Central Silk Board to KR Puram and the construction of the same could extend to about 1.5 to 2 years. The ORR houses many large Tech Parks and IT Company campuses and carries large amount of traffic throughout the day.

The ORR despite having six lanes and service roads is infamous for its perennial traffic congestion."

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The Karnataka government emphasised that in the COVID pandemic situation, with IT companies working from home (WFH) provided some relief to traffic movement on ORR. However, with the start of metro construction on ORR, it would be extremely difficult to manage traffic movement on ORR, especially if the IT companies resume work from the office.

The state government said it has taken some measures by implementing Bus Priority Lanes (BPL) and safe cycle lanes to provide alternate options for the mobility of people working or passing through ORR.

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"In addition to these measures to promote mass transit and cycling as an alternateoptions to commute on ORR, it would be greatly beneficial if the IT companies especially located in ORR, would extend the work from home option for most of the employees till December 2022, and/or the IT parks/companies may be advised to stagger the working hours for those employees working physically at the office. The IT workforce, who need to physically attend office, are encouraged to take buses (BM'l'C/Company) as these buses travel on BUS lanes," the state government said.

"We request you to circulate this advisory to IT companies located on ORR so that infrastructure development activities are carried out smoothly, which would also ease out traffic congestion in future," it urged.

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