Whitefield Rising joins hands with Xerox to make streets safer

A bus shelter and an expansive walkway is to be formally inaugurated on Monday (October 5, 2015) at 12:15 PM near International Tech Park Bangalore (ITPB) on Whitefield Road.

The Xerox CSR project was executed in partnership with Whitefield Rising (WR). As a community partner, WR played the role of an enabler in this initiative.

The guests of honour include Shri Arvind Limbavali, MLA, Mahadevapura constituency, Muniswamy, Corporator, Kadugudi ward, and Ekroop Caur, Managing Director, BMTC.

The event will be graced by Ms. Arpana Mehra, Vice President, Xerox, and Mr Mohan Kumar, AVP and Head of CSR on ‘Environment Sustainability’ at Xerox.

Overcoming a challenge

ITPB is the icon of India’s IT success story: 35,000 employees, 86 companies and counting. In the last few years, its tremendous growth has been accompanied by several traffic challenges. Public buses, private vehicles and pedestrians throng the roads.

Xerox reached out to WR to partner with it to do a meaningful CSR activity in this area. After a few recce visits and brainstorming, the two teams decided that Xerox would work to improve safety for the thousands of pedestrians that cross this path daily. Their office being located in ITPB also ensured that employees came out in large numbers to support the activities.

Tasks Completed

Xerox did the following:

· Desilted over 300 metres of blocked BBMP drains

· Paved the footpath with high-quality pavers

· Installed pedestrian safety railing and bollards to prevent riding by two-wheelers on footpath

· Cleaned and greened the median

· Completed stainless steel bus shelter with BMTC maps

A vendor is keeping the area clean as well as helping maintain the median.

Solution for Vendors

The street vendors are being made part of the solution – inclusiveness and sensitivity is what this entire CSR work was all about. Volunteers from Xerox worked on details like the design of railing, positioning of bus shelter, placement of bollards, lighting for bus stop, pedestrian crossing, etc. They interacted with coconut and juice vendors to place them in the best possible location for business and to find a sustainable solution for trash.

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