HYDERABAD: Employees of IT firms in Hyderabad would have to stay back in their offices for about an hour after office hours if it rains between 4 pm and 6 pm this monsoon .Municipal authorities believe this would help ease the gridlock traffic jam that one of the fastest growing tech cities in the country witnesses during heavy showers. The new measure has been proposed after many car owners were stranded on the streets for four to five hours during heavy showers on June 21. Even metro rail official had found it difficult to manage the huge crowds with a record 2.8 lakh people using the public transport that day.Holding back employees is perhaps the first such experiment in the country. Sources told TOI that to make the system work, civic authorities would share weather predictions with IT companies daily.Officials of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) on Tuesday met representatives of Nasscom, TCS, Tech Mahindra , Cognizant, Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (HYSEA) and NGO Cyberabad Traffic Volunteers and shared the plan with them. One estimate says about four lakh people work in the city’s IT corridor and leave their offices at roughly the same time, often creating chaos on the roads.“While most employees will be held back, women and those with urgent work will be exempted from the proposed rule,” GHMC commissioner Dana Kishore told TOI. He added that IT representatives have agreed to cooperate with the municipal corporation and another broader meeting with all the IT firms in Hi-Tec City, Gachibowli and surrounding areas would be held on Thursday.“We welcome the initiative as a way of easing the IT corridor’s traffic problems,” said HYSEA president Murali Bollu, who is also CEO of ZenQ. “However, modalities will be worked out at Thursday’s meeting.”The Cyberabad traffic police have already identified some roads which commuters can avoid. Civic authorities say they are worried as Hyderabad normally gets 48 days of rains and 20 to 25 days of heavy rains.Kishore said the city has a sewer system that can withstand two to three cm of rain. On June 21, the city received 10.45 cm rain in Raheja Mind Space and Madhapur. While Madhapur does not have a storm water drain system, the existing small drains are choked with cables and construction waste. GHMC has identified 31 more problematic inundation areas and decided to use electric motors here to drain out the water.