There seems to be no respite in sight for the city that is already buckling with traffic woes.
In the past year, over five lakh vehicles have been added to the city’s roads, with the most being added to the southern and eastern parts of Bengaluru. Perhaps, it is also no surprise that the narrow lanes of these areas feature prominently - five out of the eight to be precise – in the “heavily congested” corridors list identified by the traffic police.
According to the Transport Department, Bangalore south saw the maximum number of new vehicles, at nearly 90,000; while east Bengaluru is not far behind with over 70,000. “South-eastern areas of the city are the most difficult for us. Whitefield, Kundanahalli, Marathalli are problem areas. The roads are not designed to withstand the number of vehicles passing through it,” said M.A. Saleem, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic).
Pinning his hopes on the completion of Namma Metro, he said they will encourage car-pooling and use of public transport.
Curiously, even as these areas see a surge in applications, RTOs in Rajarajeswari Nagar, Electronics City and Yelahanka are seeing fewer vehicle registrations. M.N. Sreehari, Traffic Adviser, said the issue was with the lopsided growth of the IT sector in the city. “While areas in the north are growing, there are not many IT companies there; whereas, Bannerghatta and Anekal are seeing many,” he added.
It isn’t just the roads that get piled-up. With the old RTOs seeing surges in registrations, the queues there too are the longest. Mr. Srihari says all RTOs in the city need to be upgraded to provide the same facilities of testing as the five biggest RTOs.
Commute reduced to a crawl
While one could travel, on an average 20km in an hour in 2010, by the end of 2014, a car could only do 9.2 kmph. The increase in number of vehicles has pushed the city to its seams, shows a study by the Bengaluru Traffic Police. In 2005, the average speed was 35 kmph, or in perspective, imagine going from Electronics City to Yelahanka in an hour.
Now, a distance of 4km at K.R. Puram – which was identified as the worst-affected corridor – takes up to 90 minutes during peak hour, with junctions of Beniganahalli, Nu-Lite Junction, Doddanakundi reducing the commute to a crawl.
