IT major Wipro has voluntarily ripped away a part of its compound covering the stormwater drain(SWD) by deploying an earthmover. This comes as the city civic authority has been carrying out a demolition drive to destroy the buildings covering the SWDs.
Wipro’s Sarjapur Road campus was on Bengaluru’s civic authority, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) list of buildings standing on encroached lake beds and valleys. According to reports, the BBMP said Wipro had constructed a concrete slab covering a stormwater drain for 2.4 meters even though it had not encroached upon the drain that runs through its campus nor narrowed it.
Apart from Wipro, Prestige, Eco Space, Salarpuria, Bagmane Tech Park and over 15 IT companies were the other names on the municipal authority’s list, reports suggested. BBMP reportedly has destroyed slabs covering drains at Salarpuria and Greenwood residency.
Wipro in a statement said, “Wipro remains committed to supporting the ecology of the area it operates in. We are proactively working with the BBMP to increase the capacity and access of the stormwater drain passing through our Doddakannelli campus, built as per plans sanctioned by the authorities concerned.” Wipro has also opened a part of the compound wall to enable BBMP to carry out these efforts easily, it added.
The civic authority has been cracking down heavily on the buildings built on encroached stormwater drains – locally called Rajakaluves-, lakebeds, and valleys. When Bengaluru saw torrential rains two weeks ago, the encroachments caused stormwater drains to get blocked, which caused severe flooding and waterlogging in several areas.
Published on
September 20, 2022
