Monsoon floods hit tech capital, business goes on

BANGALORE, India (Reuters) - Police in India's technology capital, Bangalore, have urged motorists to stay off the city's roads as storms caused flooding and uprooted trees, but business was largely unaffected, officials said on Wednesday.

At least six people have been killed in accidents related to the heavy monsoon rains, authorities said.

Major technology companies said their work was not adversely affected, but moved staff between locations or sent them home early.

The city's 59.3-cm rainfall so far in October had surpassed the previous record of 52.2 cm for the month set in 1956, said A.L. Koppar, director of the Indian Meteorological Department in Bangalore.

Police sent text messages to mobile phone users asking them to stay off the roads as drainage systems were choked in several areas and fallen trees blocked roads in some.

"Please use vehicles only in emergency," the message said as the city kicked off its annual three-day BanglaoreIT.in industry exhibition and conference that targets investors.

The rains sharpened a call to boost infrastructure in the city, home to software centres for more than 1500 companies which account for about a third of India's US$17.2 billion software and business service industry.

The city of 6.5 million people is the main hub for the industry which is growing at about 30 percent.

A spokeswoman for Wipro, India's third-largest software exporter, said workers at one of its buildings that houses 500 employees were asked to shift to another location after flood water entered its ground floor.

Infosys, the second-largest exporter, said it issued regular bulletins to staff on the rains and arranged special buses on Tuesday to ferry workers home about two hours before scheduled close.