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2 Km In 2 Hours Or 5 Km In 15 Minutes? Why Every Commute Feels Like A Grand Gamble News24 –

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By Correspondent


Rain or shine, commuting in the tech hub of India, Bengaluru, is a nightmare as a mere two kms can take two hours, and if you are lucky, five kms may take just take 15 minutes — depends on your luck.

Well, not just luck, but a combination of factors, including rain can make or mar a person’s commute plans and bring all traffic to a painfully grinding halt, if things go haywire. Which often happens in the tech hub where distance is measured not in kilometers but in minutes and hours it takes to get from point A to point B.

The reasons for this mess are many, and the solutions range from the ordinary to the extraordinary to outlandish, depending on the perch you are looking at it from.

If you are the Deputy CM of Karnataka, DK Shivakumar, then you see light at the end of the traffic tunnel, well, through a plethora of underground tunnel roads to ease the traffic congestion in the city.

His underground tunneling for 17 odd kilometers has triggered off, naturally, an instant political slugfest with opposition BJP blasting holes in the proposal saying that these tunnels will be flooded at the first whiff of a heavy rain. Why even a heavy rain, even a drizzle is enough to bring traffic outside in some parts of Bangalore to a crawling halt, and then it takes a long time for it to get crawling again.

Overgrown villages, next to each other, comprise large parts of Bengaluru, like other metro cities, but in the case of Karnataka’s capital, it has grown in an unplanned manner. And it also grew suddenly as IT exploded into a hugely successful Indian export to the world, and Bengaluru became its capital, so to speak.

Migration from across the country, and the resultant explosion of real estate and consequently traffic – is one of the prime reasons, as any town planner or a person working in the town planning department of the city would tell.

Each day X number of new vehicles come out on the roads of Bengaluru, the tech hub of the country, to. Satisfy the commuting needs of the vastly growing population of the city, thanks to the fresh and everyday migration from lands far away in the north of India. Perhaps, Bengaluru is the Eldorado for huge masses that migrate from the tier one, tier two and tier three cities across North India and West Bengal and the Northeast in search of jobs — in construction industry, to manufacturing to services sector.

And this pressure adds to the already bursting at the seams infrastructure of the city and makes it even more unlivable — and twitter world goes crazy at the first whiff of rain or a little brawl on the road results in a traffic jam that gets bigger and bigger with each passing minute.

The city’s top official blamed the worsening traffic to the absence of better public transport compared cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata.

However, despite all these facts, if you choose to travel on Bengaluru roads, you need to spend around 34 minutes and 10 seconds earlier to cover more than 10 kilometres, as indicated by the TomTom report released in 2024.

The report also added that, “Bengaluru is the third slowest city in the world, followed by Kolkata and Barranquilla in Colombia.”

Where Traffic Pressure Feels The Most

Travelling on the 60-kilometre Outer Ring Road, which connects major areas like Hebbal, Marathahalli, Silk Board, BTM Layout, Banashankari, and KR Puram — or from Hebbal Flyover to Silk Road — commuters often find themselves in congestion and in bumper-to-bumper traffic. At 7 pm on July 12, the distance of 21 kilometres from Hebbal Flyover to the Silk Road bus stop was taking 1 hour and 21 minutes, as per Google Maps.

This leads to frustration among the residents and they are often seen expressing it on social media. “Congratulations @blrcitytraffic and @hsrltrafficps, you have installed yet another completely unscientific set of traffic lights. Now at 19th Main exit to ORR. Lights go green to red before anyone completes a turn. The junction is full of previous traffic when it is green lights for you,” a social media user Rajath posted on X, describing the congestion and situation of the Outer Ring Road.

He also added, “Your staff did a great job prior to handling it manually. Even now two men are operating the lights and two more begging people to stop and start. What a mess! You have made us lose the will to live.” Rajath is not the only one; many people have expressed their frustration on social media platforms.

Why The ORR Face Congestion:

According to reports, there are many reasons why the ORR faces congestion most of the time. The congestion is driven by a heavy volume of vehicles (1.5 to 2 lakh regularly), ongoing construction work, inadequate infrastructure, waterlogging during the monsoon, encroachment, and limited public transport.

To ease the congestion, a proposal to build a 1.5-kilometre elevated road from Bellandur to ORR is underway. In parallel, the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) is also planning to introduce a separate bus lane on the ORR, which will reduce travel time by 20 minutes, said BMTC Managing Director Ramachandran R while speaking to the media.

The Silk Road:

The Silk Road junction is also another choking point in Bengaluru due to heavy traffic volume and poor infrastructure such as no zebra crossings and signals. Traffic from all directions merges at the junction, which triggers massive congestion.

Officials said that they have plans to develop pedestrian-friendly infrastructure. However, when it will be implemented has not been disclosed yet.

Notably, a 5.12-km Silk Road Flyover from Ragigudda to Central Silk Board, which includes various loops and ramps designed to facilitate smooth traffic flow, was constructed at a cost of Rs 449 crore in 2024.

Following the inauguration, traffic officials claimed that traffic at the Silk Road junction was reduced by 50 percent. Earlier, they used to receive 19 traffic complaints in a day, but after the flyover, only 11.

What Top Official Is Saying:

The top official Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) M.N. Anucheth said Bengaluru traffic is slow due to multiple reasons. Unlike cities like Delhi that have dedicated terminals for trucks, Bengaluru lacks a proper peripheral road network, faces waterlogging during the monsoon, and has 1.23 crore registered vehicles.

The data was released by the Joint CP during a show with entrepreneur (Zerodha Co-Founder) Nikhil Kamath on a podcast.

The Joint CP also informed that Bengaluru has historically lacked public transport facilities.

“The only public transport facilities before the metro came in were the BMTC buses. Unlike other cities — like in Kolkata, you have the trams; in Delhi, you have the metro; in Mumbai, you have the Mumbai local — which is not the case here,” he said.

When News 24 contacted Joint CP Anucheth on July 15, he told that he was transferred to DIG recruitment.




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