Nails scattered on the stretch between Central Silk Board and HSR Layout are causing flat tyres every other day. Techies say the nails are usually found near puncture shopsKeys, wallet, mobile phone and laptop — these are the four things probably every techie takes before stepping out of his house to work.But tyre tubes have become must-haves for techies heading to their workplace on two-wheelers and four-wheelers in the tech corridor (between Central Silk Board and HSR Layout), because they have flat tyres almost every other day.Saravanan Muthu, 37, a principal consultant with an IT firm travels from Bommanahalli to Mahadevapura every day on a two-wheeler. He says, “In the last couple of weeks, my vehicle’s tyres have punctured at least five times. This is strange because my vehicle is a brand new Hero Honda bike. I bought it a few weeks ago. The old bike I had before this one got punctured eight times within a few months. All these punctures have been caused by the same type of nails lying on the road.”But why does Muthu carry a brand new tube every day to office? He says, “Each puncture is charged Rs 50. Strangely, every time I head to the puncture shop, I am told that I need to change the tube which costs not less than Rs 350. Without option, I end up buying this sub-standard tube which gets punctured in a day or two. A techie, who faced the same problem, suggested that I keep a brand new tube handy to give the puncturewallah so that he doesn't cheat me with a sub-standard one.”The abundance of nails on the stretch continues to baffle the victims. When Muthu recently went with a flat tyre to a puncture shop along Silk Board-HSR Layout route, he saw at the shop at least eight vehicles with punctures caused by the same kind of nails. He has now shot off an email to the police asking them to look into frequent punctures caused by the nails.One recent evening, Ashvin Mandowara, a techie who travels on a two-wheeler on this stretch, noticed six two-wheelers punctured on the road. A week earlier, he saw four two-wheelers punctured on the same road.He says, “We doubt that someone is purposely scattering nails on the road to get some business. I also noticed a boy standing on a service road and directing all punctured vehicles to a mechanic’s shop.”Anand Kumar, 33, a techie who commutes on a motorbike to his office in Bagmane Tech Park and has fallen prey to the nails often, says, “Interestingly, these nails are found only near puncture shops.”