No place in Bengaluru is free of traffic problems. But for people in Whitefield, that high technology enclave touted as a symbol of the city’s cyber city status, traffic dictates their lives.
While residents fret over the hours they spend to cover commutes of 10 minutes within Whitefield, over non-existent and traffic-clogged roads, professionals working in its tech parks feel the five-hour bus commute each day has thrown their work-life balance out of gear.
Residents of the area schedule their commutes and activities around windows of time when the traffic is comparatively more navigable.
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Nitya Ramakrishnan, a Whitefield resident, said moving around the localities is impossible with even a 10 minute commute taking an hour. Her 20-minute commute to office on Outer Ring Road six years ago has now increased to an hour now.
Member of Whitefield Rising, a citizen-led association that is working to resolve problems of Whitefield including traffic, she believes there is a need for companies to get together for a dialogue with the government to find a solution to the problem. This, she believes, is “very possible.”
“This is like Mandur, except that it is people and not garbage, who are being dumped here,” she said.
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Niranjan Kirvadi, Manager, Whitefield Export Promotion Park Industrial Association (WEPPIA), said there are at least four lakh people commuting to the Whitefield area every day, using public and private road transport from the City centre.
"Commuting by road has become a nightmare with travel time of two to three hours and more each way during peak hours," he added.