‘All Bus Day’ a big hit

The IT and ITES Association of Andhra Pradesh (ITsAP), a registered apex body with more than 300 members representing the software industry in the state, hosted the ‘All Bus Day’ on Tuesday. Roughly three lakh software employees shunned cars and private transport on the occasion of World Earth Day. The techies commuted through public transport from their homes to their place of work. The intention was to spread the message of cutting down on the pollution level.

“This is a small step that is being taken by the techies for sustainable environment,” said Pradeep Gadicherla, an office-bearer of the ITsAP. This day has been called the largest ‘No Car Day’ ever to be observed in the city.

According to Mohammed Yaseen Shaik, general manager, HR, IIC Technologies almost 80 per cent of IT professionals chose to travel by public transport and reported for work on time. Some associates, who normally travel by car, used carpooling as another option. The awareness for the need for clean and sustainable green environment spread quite contagiously and shall be reinforced further with more environment-friendly activities, individually, as well as collectively.”

Ranjita Chilkuri, assistant manager-HR, Hitachi Consulting, said, “95 per cent of its employees who participated gave a positive feedback to the initiative.”

“In spite of being a SME company, 30 per cent of our employees commuted through public transport in response to the call given by ITsAP,” informed J Sudhkar, senior HR manager, Avienon India.

Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) officials decided to give a boost to this initiative by plying more buses in the IT corridor to ensure enough connectivity for the techies to traverse.

According to Vijay Lakshmi, nodal officer, APSRTC, a 30 per cent increase in bus occupancy on routes to Hitec City was reported from areas like Ameerpet, Lingampally, Mehdipatnam and Bachupally.

The routes where special buses were pressed into service were

H1- Bachupally to Nizampet

H2- Lingampally, Chanda Nagar via Hafeezpet

H3- Lingampally to HCU via the IIIT Road

H4- Mehdipatnam to Tolichowki via Gachibowli

The theme for this year’s World Earth Day is ‘Green Cities’. On the occasion, all the companies who are part of ITsAP started a dry waste management programme. The programme would go on till Friday. Employees have been asked to bring dry waste from their house. A collection point has been set up in their respective offices. ITC would be collecting the garbage and segregating it. The waste collected would then be used for landfills.

The aim of this programme is to inculcate the habit of three Rs---reduce, reuse and recycle.