CHENNAI: Nothing is well in the much proclaimed IT Corridor, which houses many IT/ITES companies in the city. Thousands of IT professionals, particularly young women, who hail from various parts of the country and interior Tamil Nadu in search of greener pastures, have become victims of sexual harassment. Also, traffic chaos remains another major problem in the 20.1 km stretch from Madhya Kailash junction in Adyar to Siruseri. For many like Shilpa (23) from Bangalore, a leading IT company employee in the corridor, everyday is a nightmare. The minute she steps out of office to go to the bus stop, danger lurks in the form of unruly local youth, who pass lewd comments and attempt to molest her. “Even if we manage to reach the bus stop safely, we are harassed while commuting to in the buses,” she says. “There is no separate seating for us in auto-rickshaws too, which are overcrowded all the time. We have no choice but to be seated next to men, who do not leave an opportunity to harass us,” says Sachitra (23), another IT professional. “Those of us who are not familiar with Tamil are at a greater risk than the other girls,” she says. Though several IT companies offer their employees the luxury of travelling in company buses, many prefer opting for public transport, as the company buses have fixed schedules and require a lot of waiting. “If we opt for MTC buses, which are always overcrowded, we are harassed, as the seating is not clearly compartmentalised for women,” says Kavitha, an IT professional.Working women living in hostels in the corridor are an equally vulnerable lot. One of the reasons is the presence of several TASMAC shops every few kilometres in the stretch. The other is the wide cultural divide between the locals settled in the area and the IT employees. “Women dressed in western casuals like denims and T-shirts are the common targets for unruly youth. This can be controlled by proper policing,’’ said a senior police officer on condition of anonymity.The other major problem for the locals in the corridor is the traffic, caused also by incomplete projects in the area. There are more than 12 bus stops in the corridor, but none of them have bus shelters or toilet facilities. “I have been commuting from Thoraipakkam for last five years, but there has been no improvement in the infrastructure in the area. When it rains, we need to run to the nearest shops for shelter,” says Manoharan, who works in a paper company in the locality.The Tamil Nadu Road Development Company (TNRDC) has dug nearly seven meters of the road for the construction of a pavement, but the work has been left incomplete. Due to this, the public has to wait for buses on the main road, which increases congestion in the already traffic-high road.Around 8,000 vehicles hit this road daily, causing traffic congestion and yet, only 13 traffic police personnel have been deployed to manage the traffic in the entire 20-kilometer stretch.“It takes nearly 45 minutes to reach Madhya Kailash junction from Sholinganallur by car. Due to the heavy traffic, the petrol consumption has doubled,” rues Umar, who works in an MNC in Sholinganallur. K Ekambaram, president of Okkiyam Thoraipakkam panchayat, says, “Nearly 10,000 people commute from his panchayat alone, and if the locals living in six more panchayats were included, around one lakh people would be using the Rajiv Gandhi Salai daily.”“We have taken up the issue with the TNRDC, but they passed the buck, calling it a contractor’s problem. The working is getting delayed because the contractor has been changed,” says Ekambaram. “Even the pavement that they laid for a few kilometers is very poor.” A senior officer of TNRDC said that work had been sped up. While refusing to explain the reason for the delay of the project, he assured that the `44 crore project would be complete in a year.
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