In the last few weeks, perceptive motorists accustomed to driving on the section of Rajiv Gandhi Salai close to the Ascendas IT Park could not have missed an unusually orderly movement of vehicles. The improvement is strikingly evident at the point where CSIR Road, where the IT park is located, meets Rajiv Gandhi Salai.
The IT park has posted two private security guards at this junction to regulate rush-hour traffic, and these part-time traffic regulators are sometimes helped by traffic policeman.
If you happen to hit the stretch, you may identify them by the batons painted in red and white they use for regulating traffic. This situation is not unique to this junction. There are other junctions and busy sections on Rajiv Gandhi Salai where the IT parks located nearby press their staff, usually security guards, into regulating traffic. Though this exercise is being carried out by these IT parks for the benefit of their employees, it serves motorists and pedestrians at large.
Going by this, getting private security personnels to manage traffic movement near heavily-staffed companies has become almost an obligation.
Five months ago, RMZ Millennia, which has two IT Parks on MGR Salai in Kandanchavadi, asked its private security company to also regulate movement of vehicles on the stretch. Too many cuts in the median, parking of vehicles by cab drivers and encroachments had led to a significant increase in the time taken by its employees to enter the premises. Also, on the service lane leading to Ramanujan IT City at Taramani, two to three security guards manage traffic at the intersection. One of them is a former traffic policeman. There are similar examples at a junction in Sholinganallur, near which an Infosys facility is located, and the section near DLF IT Park in Manapakkam.
According to those running private security firms, when some companies sign them up, as part of the contract, the security guards should come trained in traffic management.
“Some companies hire retired traffic police personnel for the exercise as they can be expected to do a good job of it,” says P. Karthikeyan, branch head of DI Fortification, a private security service provider that works for IT Parks and commercial establishments.
Not all the security guards are happy about having to regulate traffic movement outside the IT parks, on public roads.
“One commands respect inside the premises, but on the road, one faces the wrath of motorists,” says Karthikeyan, adding that the thumb rule for guards is not to talk to anybody on the road.
While any help in regulating traffic should be welcome, some motorists complain these security guards are biased towards employees of the company they are serving.
C. Velan, CEO, Ramanujan IT City, does not find the trend of hiring private security guards near offices as healthy. The stretch leading to the IT Park already has a traffic outpost, and separate lanes for two- and four-wheelers and pedestrians to walk.
“If motorists followed better road discipline, companies/IT Parks would not be forced to regulate traffic outside their premises,” he says, adding that cost is not a factor but congestion is.
At Ramanujan IT City, where over 20,000 employees work, the management is also working on the option of staggering the timings of companies.
“We have 30-odd occupants and we are in talks with them. A one-way entry is also being proposed,” says Velan.
