Cauvery water row: Bengaluru loses Rs 25,000 crore, estimates Assocham

Bengaluru: With the city engulfed in widespread violence on Monday, industry body Assocham has estimated a loss of around Rs 25,000 crore for the city and severely dented its industry friendly image.

Assocham Secretary General D.S. Rawat has said that widespread violence, interruption of road, rail and air transport and inability of the workforce to safely reach offices and factories, Bengaluru city has suffered a loss between '22,000 and Rs 25,000 crore.

The violence in the state capital and other parts of the state has also severely dented Bengaluru’s image, home to almost all the Fortune 500 companies. “The way the violent incidents had spread is demoralising the business and industrial community, particularly in Bengaluru. The image that India built around Bengaluru as its ‘Silicon Valley’ is being sullied,” said Rawat.

IT and ITES facilities would be hit badly due to poor attendance and also negatively affect inter-state tourism, particularly those involving pilgrims, and domestic travelers. Huge cancellations of air tickets have also been reported to and from Bengaluru, said the body. “Likewise, industrial production, movement of cargo and retail trade, including malls, cinema halls, restaurants, have been halted,” he said

The strikes and bandhs should not be allowed to take violent shape and the law and order machinery should be geared up well in advance, the industry body said. “While we are selling ourselves to be the fastest growing economy of the world, we cannot afford to have such incidents taking place in the metropolitan cities. After all, the two states had built, a progressive image, which should not be compromised,” he said.

On Tuesday, IT giants TCS, Infosys and Wipro as also e-commerce majors Flipkart and Amazon have decided to keep their offices shut in the city.
Many employees have been asked to work from home as the companies invoked business continuity plans to ensure there is no disruption to projects.