Disruptive disasters have a way of exposing the banality of our problem-solving rituals. Unoriginal thinkers have predictably responded to the problem of growing traffic congestion by expanding road space.
Frustrated by the peak hour congestion along Greenways Road, Thiru. Vi. Ka. Bridge and Santhome Road, two judges in the Madras High Court decided to take matters into their hands. In February 2020, they tasked the Greater Chennai Corporation with working out the feasibility of building an alternative route to Besant Nagar by re-fashioning the Broken Bridge across the Adyar Estuary into an elevated expressway.
That road would have merely transferred pollution and congestion from Santhome and Thiru Vi Ka bridge to the Marina Loop Road and Besant Nagar beach. For this, 1,200 fishing families would have had to be evicted, and some 500 women fish vendors would lose their livelihood space. With no strategies to keep the rising number of vehicles in check, even this relief would have been short-lived.
The COVID-19 lockdown has spotlighted possible cures for seemingly intractable urban challenges, including poor air quality, congested roads, angry commuters and unpopular road building projects. It is ironic, and perhaps befitting, that a virus that attacks the lungs has shown us the way to safeguard the air we breathe.
Before the lockdown, Work From Home (WFH) was written off as a cute and hip gesture. In the five months of blue skies and quiet on the city’s streets, the IT industry discovered that WfH works.
R. Sundar Kannan, an executive with a leading Wall Street bank employing 3,500 people in Chennai, says WFH may have permanently changed how work will be done. “Productivity has increased. Long-distance commuters are relieved, and we are just realising the many more potential benefits WFH can yield,” Mr. Kannan says. His company is looking to halve its real estate needs as the lockdown has shown the way for cost-cutting dividends. IT giants like TCS and Cognizant are expected to follow suit.
IT sector’s gains
The IT sector has large energy, water and space footprints. Aided by WFH, the tech sector’s new normal can have positive collaterals for Chennai’s environment. Peak hour traffic on Thiru. Vi. Ka. bridge and along the IT corridor is flowing freely despite full relaxation for the IT sector. The lockdown has demonstrated that at no investment, congestion can be relieved, air quality can improve and fuel use reduced if the IT and BPO sector are encouraged to explore WFH options.
Demand for water has declined drastically. According to South Chennai Private Water Tanker Lorry Association, water supplied by its tankers has dipped from 3.2 crore litres daily to 40 lakh litres. The salubrious impact of WfH will be evident on the water tables of Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Chennai’s peri-urban areas.
While WFH may have had a positive effect on the city’s environment, the empty IT buildings have hurt the poorest hardest. Thousands of janitorial and housekeeping jobs have evaporated and small business that depended on high-spending IT professionals have shut shop. It is up to the government to ensure that the fortuitous environmental windfall created by WFH does not become a social nightmare for working people of Semmencheri and Kannagi Nagar.
The WHO has declared September 7 as the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies. In the 10 months since the first COVID-19 case was detected in China, more than 8,50,000 lives have been lost to the disease. But every year, five times that number reportedly die just due to ambient air pollution.
It would be unwise for metropolises such as Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Bengaluru to ignore the possibilities presented by the lockdown for redefining work, workspaces and work cultures to help our cities emerge from the gridlocked cesspools that they have become.
(The author is a writer and social activist)