Kochi: Infopark techies demand more transport facilities

Kochi: Commuting woes of hundreds of techies working at Infopark is yet to be resolved with the software employees demanding more public transportation facilities to tide over issues like inadequate parking space.

Prathidhwani, a welfare organisation of IT employees of the state which was instrumental in getting week-end long-haul KSRTC buses from Infopark, has started an online survey among software employees so as to find "most demand" local routes.

"With most of the staff arriving in private vehicles, inadequate parking space has emerged as a major issue. Currently, employees at Infopark and the Kakkanad Special Economic Zone are finding it difficult to get buses to various destinations in the city and its outskirts," said Ashik C Sreenivasan, Secretary, Kochi Wing of 'Prathidhwani'.

The survey results will be submitted to the district collector and the district level officer-in-charge of the KSRTC while demanding new bus schedules in city routes.

"The KSRTC has stopped plying many short-haul low-floor AC buses earlier deployed in Infopark route which escalated the transportation woes.

We'll request concerned authorities to restart services in the most demand routes found in the survey," he said.

Currently, the KSRTC is operating week-end long haul services to Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, Palakkad, Thrissur and Kodungallur. It also conducts a few non AC low-floor and ordinary services to Infopark.

However, the corporation is not in favour of operating more short-haul services citing "low" revenue collection. .

Meanwhile, a major demand among the survey was to provide connectivity from Chittettukara Boat jetty to Infopark as connection to the City Water Bus plying in the Chittettukara-Vytilla Hub section.

"The boat service is now regular and many depend on it to reach their workplace as it's only a 20 minute ride from Vytilla," said Nikhil Lakshman, a techie.