Traffic Woes: How Bengaluru's vehicular congestion has led to a loss of nearly Rs 20,000 crore

Along with its bustling tech industry, Bengaluru is also famous for its terrible traffic conditions.

According to a new report, India’s Silicon Valley has lost Rs 19,725 crore annually as a result of its traffic delays, congestion, signal stops, time loss, fuel waste, and associated causes.

The report was submitted to DK Shivakumar, the deputy chief minister of Karnataka, by Sreehari, a transportation advisor to numerous governments and smart cities, with recommendations for traffic control, road design, and flyovers among other things.

Let’s take a look.

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Loss of money

The report by traffic expert MN Sreehari and his team focused on topics like road planning, flyovers, traffic management, and insufficient infrastructure.

According to the report, despite having 60 fully functional flyovers in the city, the Karnataka city has incurred a loss of Rs 19,725 crore for road users as a result of delays, traffic jams, signal delays, slow-moving vehicles obstructing fast-moving ones, fuel waste, lost occupant time, lost vehicle time when converted into money based on salary, and other factors.

It says the increased employment in the IT sector has resulted in the development of all linked services, including housing and education and more. Due to this, the population has increased by an extraordinary 14.5 million people, and there are now almost 1.5 billion vehicles on the road.

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According to the data, Bengaluru has grown from 88 square kilometres to 985 square kilometres in 2023. The report suggests that the metropolis should grow to a size of 1,100 square kilometres.

“On the other hand, the road length growth is not in proportion with the vehicular growth and area growth. The total length of the road is about 11,000 kilometres which is not enough to meet our transport demand and trips made,” the report said, adding, “The exponential growth of population and their job potential speed could not match with the infrastructural growth that is existing. The gap deficiency has resulted in delays, congestion, higher travel time, and huge economic loss (intangible) in terms of direct and indirect cost.”

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According to Sreehari and his team, Bengaluru requires radial roads, ring roads, with specific rings like OPR, PRR, and STRR likewise for every five-kilometre one circular route, which is also connected by radial roads. It is also well known that STRR was planned long ago, its construction and maintenance expenses have increased due to problems with land acquisition.

For the next 25 years, the experts have also recommended expanding the underground-based road infrastructure to tackle the traffic problem. The report says the government should investigate the possibility of providing government buses and metros with openings spaced every one to two kilometres.

The report also recommended that the government get rid of any parking along the road because pathways are intended for legal pedestrian walking while highways are intended for vehicles. Sreehari claimed, “As a transport expert, I have failed to show even one road in Bengaluru without parking.”

In addition, the team discouraged the use of private transportation systems in favour of expanding public transportation options including the metro, monorail, and high-capacity buses. It was also suggested to employ the VMS (Variable Message System) to combine robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) for road users.

The report, “Deploy enough personnel for the observation of violators and immediate action plans in addition to camera and sensor system. Since the entire road system is full of activities, exploring underground transportation, particularly for metros, government buses etc., gives openings every one or two kilometres and escape routes. This will also cover ventilation and other requirements during the disaster.”

Hindustan Times cited research by the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) which recommended building a flyover or an underpass in five out of ten crossroads that see excessive traffic as a long-term solution to the city’s traffic congestion.  These flyovers or underpasses were estimated to have cost a total of Rs 16 crore.

Short-term and long-term strategies to lessen traffic congestion at these intersections are included in the ISEC’s draft report. These are the ten vital intersections: Silk Board, Ibballur, Kadubeesanahalli, Dairy Circle, Tin Factory, Hebbal, Goraguntepalya, Sarakki, Banashankari, and Kumaraswamy Layout.

The report also highlights a specific allocation of Rs 8.9 crore rupees for the improvement of pathways in eight crossroads and clusters.

On 3 August, Deputy CM Shivakumar met with Union Minister of Highways and Road Transport Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi to discuss the problem of traffic congestion in Bengaluru. In order to reduce traffic in the IT city, the Centre has requested that the state government create a thorough project study.

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Bengaluru – slowest driving place

According to a report published earlier this year by geolocation technology expert TomTom, due to Bengaluru’s renowned traffic, it will be the second slowest place to travel through in the globe in 2022.

Livemint cited the study as saying that it would take the average person 30 minutes to travel 10 kilometres.

Travelling is, however, excruciatingly slower than Bengaluru in New York, where it took 36 minutes and 20 seconds to traverse 10 km through the city core in 2022.

The list also includes places like Milan, Italy; the capital of Japan; and Dublin, Ireland.

According to the report, Bengaluru’s rush hour traffic caused up to 129 hours worth of lost time in the previous year.

There has been an increase in the number of hours spent stuck in traffic, even though work-from-home options have become quite popular since the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to gridlock, Dublin might have wasted 140 hours.

With inputs from agencies