Bengaluru: One of the biggest problems of Bengaluru is its roads and traffic. The city's struggle to move to its office and back. CNN-IBN's Deepa Balakrishnan and Shylaja Varma tell you the state of roads has left angry citizens wondering whether they should refuse to vote in protest.
Most important roads including the one connects all of Bengaluru to the highway that leads to the airport are in bad shape. Just last month, IT city with its bumpy roads beat all other metros as the city with the most potholes - over 4,600 in all - and the city with the maximum number of reckless driving cases in the country.
Ask anybody in Bengaluru, they complain that roads are bad. A citizen said, "road is so worse, if rains comes, for two days entire road is blocked. People dig wherever they want to. My vehicle gets damaged by going on these roads."
To compound the problem, Bengaluru boasts of 57 lakh vehicle owners – vehicles which mostly crawl and plough their way through peak hour traffic that can make their commute slower than walking. Public buses are crowded and not always reliable, forcing people to prefer their own vehicles against taking the bus.
Sridhar Pabbisetty, CEO of Namma Bengaluru Foundation said, "if we travel 30 KMs every day, spending 4 hours in traffic, it's ridiculous. The single best thing for govt is to incentivise public transport. We have to understand that road space is limited. We have 1.2 crore Bangaloreans, and in a few years, it will be 2 crores. Our cities are choked, at this rate."
Last year, Bengaluru saw a network of techies demanding an efficient commuter rail system – considering the city has a large number of stations within it – on different routes in all zones – they held a demonstration.
Like most of the people in Bengaluru, even the working professionals spend hours stuck in traffic as they commute to work every single day. They say that the existing railway lines in Bengaluru are one of the most under-utilised lines as compared to other metros. According to them, only increasing the frequency of trains in these lines will bring some immediate relief to the rising traffic problems.
A harassed IT professional said, "Being a woman I face many problems. I commute by bus. If I leave office at 6, I reach home around 9:30. I don't think it's safe after 9. If I take train, I will reach home by 7. There is a 2 and a half hour gap".
Another software said, "it is a quick feasible solution in order to reduce traffic in Bangalore compared to the metro. By the time metro comes, it is not an immediate solution. Here, the infrastructure already exists so it is not difficult for govt to run it."
The only comic relief has been efforts by artists like Badal Nanjundaswamy to shame the government into fixing the infrastructure. Other artists have of late joined the bandwagon to show up the BBMP’s failure to repair roads. And art and anger will hopefully get the administration going post elections.
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