Why is everyone talking about Bengaluru's traffic jam? What went wrong?

Bengaluru’s infamous traffic is making headlines again. India’s ‘Silicon Valley’ witnessed tremendous traffic congestion on Wednesday (27 September) at several routes, leading to long vehicle queues for hours. The worst-hit area was Bengaluru’s tech corridor, Outer Ring Road (ORR), where commuters said they were stuck in traffic for five hours.

How did the gridlock choke Bengaluru’s ORR? Why is the Karnataka capital notorious for its traffic problems? Let’s take a closer look.

‘1 km in 2 hours’

The traffic snarls on the tech corridor alongside the ORR (between Silk Board Junction and KR Puram) began on Wednesday morning, with employees reportedly taking almost three hours to reach their workplaces.

“There was a huge number of vehicles on the road. As there was a bandh on Tuesday, it had a cascading effect, with more employees coming to the office on Wednesday. With the long weekend also coming up, the outflux and influx of traffic was very high. The congestion, which would usually take an hour to clear, took over 1.5 hours today (Wednesday),” Kuldeep Kumar Jain, DCP (Traffic), East Division, was quoted as saying by The Hindu.

As the officegoers started leaving ahead of the five-day long weekend, the traffic condition worsened in the evening.

While congestion alerts on a usual Wednesday between Silk Board and Tin Factory on ORR are at 197, it reportedly touched a whopping 1,069 yesterday.

According to the Bengaluru traffic police department, the number of vehicles doubled on 27 September as compared to other Wednesdays. Usually, there are 1.5-2 lakh vehicles on the road on Wednesdays, the figures touched 3.5 lakhs as of 7:30 pm yesterday.

Several people took to social media to narrate their traffic woes. Visuals of vehicles crawling due to long jams flooded the internet.

It’s midnight now & #Bengaluru Massive traffic jam on the ORR stretch continues

Unforgettable experience for the citizens#BengaluruTraffic #ORRTraffic #BengaluruTrafficJam #ORRTrafficJam #Bangalore #BangaloreTraffic #BangaloreTrafficJam

(Credits to the original owners) https://t.co/xznWBOPOSD pic.twitter.com/1fEswylBEm

— Karnataka Weather (@Bnglrweatherman) September 27, 2023

One user on X, formerly Twitter, claimed it took 2 hours to cover just 1 km on the ORR.

1 km in 2 hrs, tea’s and coffee’s are getting delivered to car near sakra hospital #bellandur @bellandurutrfps @blrcitytraffic #BengaluruTraffic pic.twitter.com/dDEw37oprJ

— V Ravi kumara (@ravikumarav17) September 27, 2023

Another user tweeted, “Extremely extremely bad traffic in BLR ORR today evening. My card mileage dropped from kilometers per litre to litres per kilometer. I have covered 7kms in 2 hours so far from Whitefield to Marathahalli and got 5 more km (to) cover.”

A user said they “braved” Bengaluru’s traffic to attend popular comedian Trevor Noah’s show at the Manpho Convention Centre near Hebbal flyover. However, Noah was “forced” to cancel his show due to “technical issues”. As per The News Minute, the comedian himself was stuck in traffic and had reached the venue about “20 minutes late”.

A Bengaluru resident claimed that his children returned from school at 9 pm because of the congestion.

This is a disgraceful statement from the government. Instead of making excuses, maybe admit that Bangalore has no public transport, terrible drainage, badly maintained roads and poor city planning. My children returned from school at 9 pm, and these guys are blaming the citizens. pic.twitter.com/v9FvImQBHQ

— Ritesh Banglani (@banglani) September 27, 2023

With the waiting time so long, some commuters apparently decided to order food. A man shared a video of two Domino’s executives delivering food. “When we decided to order from @dominos during the Bangalore choke. They were kind enough to track our live location (a few metres away from our random location added in the traffic) and deliver to us in the traffic jam,” a user wrote on X.

When we decided to order from @dominos during the Bangalore choke. They were kind enough to track our live location (a few metres away from our random location added in the traffic) and deliver to us in the traffic jam. #Bengaluru #bengalurutraffic #bangaloretraffic pic.twitter.com/stnFDh2cHz

— Rishivaths (@rishivaths) September 27, 2023

What caused the ‘unprecedented’ congestion?

Terming the situation near the ORR “unprecedented”, the Bengaluru traffic police laid out five reasons for the awful traffic.

According to Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) MN Anucheth, as there was a bandh in the city on Tuesday, many employees came to work the next day and tried to exit simultaneously, reported Deccan Herald (DH). The long weekend further compounded the problem as many people were trying to leave the city. Today (28 September) is Eid-e-Milad, a gazetted holiday; on Friday, a Karnataka bandh has been called over the Cauvery water issue; then it is the weekend; and Monday is Gandhi Jayanti, another public holiday.

The vehicular count yesterday was double that of typical Wednesdays in the city.

Moreover, the rainfall led to waterlogging on several interior roads, which further fuelled the traffic snarls. Heavy showers caused potholes, which hurt the smooth flow of vehicles.

Six vehicle breakdowns were reported on the ORR between 3:30 pm and 5 pm, enhancing the traffic congestion, as per the traffic police.

Old problem

Bengaluru is known for its traffic issues, so much so that it is a topic of memes for netizens. Areas along the ORR like Marthahalli, Bellandur, Central Silk Board, KR Puram, Hebbal, and Goraguntepalya often face severe traffic congestion, as per Moneycontrol.

However, the situation is not funny anymore. A report released this August claimed that the city loses Rs 19,725 crore annually due to its traffic woes.

The research conducted by traffic and mobility expert MN Sreehari and his team found that despite having 60 fully functional flyovers, the city suffers a loss of crores of rupees owing to traffic delays, congestion, stoppages at signals, time loss, fuel loss and other related factors, reported Hindustan Times (HT).

So, what’s behind the problem?

Bengaluru’s population boom is one of the reasons contributing to the issue. The IT hub attracts workers from across the country every year. This rise in population has exposed the demand-supply gap in the city’s transportation infrastructure, as per an Outlook report.

Due to the lack of better public transportation facilities, people rely on private vehicles, exacerbating the traffic woes.

Although the city’s land area has widely expanded over the years, the road length has failed to keep up with the vehicle growth. Citing Sreehari’s findings, HT reported that “the road length growth is not in proportion with the vehicular growth and area growth. The total length of road is about 11,000 kilometres which is not enough to meet our transport demand and trips made”.

The rapid growth of tech parks and residential complexes on both sides of ORR has also made matters worse.  “The lack of parallel roads and the road’s design make the tech corridor, particularly the southeast Bengaluru section near IT offices in Whitefield and Sarjapur Road, susceptible to disruptions. Even a single truck breakdown, a fallen tree, or waterlogging in a small section can bring the entire tech corridor to a standstill,” according to the Moneycontrol report.

Outer Ring Road Companies Association (ORRCA) report shows that 6.4 lakh employees travel daily between Silk Board and KR Puram, leading to 3.3 lakh vehicles on the road, as per Moneycontrol.

Traffic diversions due to infrastructure projects add to the problem. Moreover, civic problems such as narrow roads, waterlogging and potholes are also contributing to the city’s traffic congestion.

Bengaluru is not alone

As per location technology company Tom Tom’s Traffic Index this February, Bengaluru was the second most congested city globally after London.

To drive a distance of 10 kilometres, the travel time in the city was nearly 29 minutes and 10 seconds in 2022, as per the traffic index.

Other Indian cities also made it to the index.

While Bengaluru was India’s most traffic-congested city last year, Pune was ranked sixth, New Delhi was in the 34th position and Mumbai on the 47th.

Notably, Bengaluru was the most traffic-congested city in the world in 2019, noted Indian Express. 

Other cities such as Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad also struggle with traffic issues.

With inputs from agencies