Tender to set up work cocoon in New Town

Kolkata: In a unique step the West Bengal Housing & Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco) has floated tender for setting up of three work cocoons at New Town.

The cocoons will have seating arrangement with work tables, wifi facilities, a small café shop and a small library with a comfortable work environment. There will be facilities for 10-12 people in a single cocoon.

Work from home has emerged as a new normal now, and it will continue to be so post COVID, when the lockdown will be lifted. In a particular family, a child will need facilities to attend classes in school or private tuition from home, a working mother will have similar requirement and of course the male earning member too may have to work from home.

"So, there will be a continuous conflict regarding time management of the various family members who need the same infrastructure . Moreover, there is always a psychological factor involved in doing very serious work from home rather than from office. Hence cocoons will be a handy urban solution. As these will be located in close proximity people can come up in bicycles, two wheelers and avoid public transport where maintaining physical distancing is a challenge," said a senior Hidco official. Three strategic locations have already been identified for setting up these cocoons.

Twitter has already announced that it will allow its employees to work from home while IT major TCS has said that 75 per cent of their employees should work from home. Various IT companies are adopting the same model as TCS.

Hidco Chairman Debashis Sen has spoken with Abin Chaudhary about the interior decoration of such cocoons .