'Exclusive private property': Wipro's Azim Premji reacts to Siddaramaiah's request for road access through campus

Wipro founder chairman Azim Premji has declined Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s request to allow limited vehicular movement through the IT giant's Sarjapur campus in Bengaluru to ease congestion on Outer Ring Road (ORR). He said that it is an “exclusive private property owned by a listed company” and not meant for public thoroughfare.

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, on Tuesday, had written to Premji to explore "the possibility of allowing limited vehicular movement through the Wipro campus, subject to mutually agreed terms and necessary security considerations".

Azim Premji, however, declined the request and even stated that allowing public vehicular movement through Wipro’s Sarjapur campus will cause "significant legal, governance, and statutory challenges".

What was Siddaramaiah's request?

Siddaramaiah, in his letter to Azim Premji, stated that as per “preliminary assessments by traffic and urban mobility experts”, the road access through the campus could reduce congestion on adjoining stretches of the Outer Ring Road by nearly 30 per cent, particularly during peak office hours.

Why Azim Premji declined the request

In his reply sent on Wednesday, Azim Premji said that allowing public vehicular movement through Wipro's Bengaluru campus–which is an “exclusive private property,”–could result in “significant legal, governance, and statutory challenges".

The Wipro boss further pointed out that the IT campus in Sarjapur is a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), whose contractual conditions mandate “stringent, non-negotiable access control norms for governance and compliance”.

Premji also noted that public vehicular movement through private property would not be effective as a sustainable, long-term solution.

"The problem's complexity, stemming from multiple factors, suggests that there is unlikely to be a single point solution or a silver bullet to resolve it," he noted.

The Wipro founder chairman said he believed the most effective path forward is to commission a comprehensive, scientific study led by an entity with world-class expertise in urban transport management.

Traffic congestion on Bengaluru's Outer Ring Road

The Outer Ring Road has been a nightmare for commuters due to severe traffic congestion and bad road conditions.

The issue came to the limelight when BlackBuck CEO and co-founder Rajesh Yabaji said on 'X' that his company would move out of the ORR (Bellandur) as the average commute for his colleagues went up by one-and-a-half hours one way and the roads are full of potholes and dust, "coupled with lowest intent to get them rectified". He further said, "Didn’t see any of this changing in the next 5 years."