The Outer Ring Road (ORR) in Bengaluru, the city's tech corridor, experienced an extended traffic snarl with traffic coming to a complete standstill on Wednesday, September 27. This congestion was particularly severe, with people reporting travel times of up to two hours to cover just one kilometre. The traffic jam also delayed school buses, causing some children to arrive home as late as 8 pm. The congestion took several hours to ease up, with slow-moving traffic being established on the road only after 9 pm. Several people were stuck for nearly six hours in the traffic.
Traffic police had their hands full, with their team working to clear the traffic on the ORR. They identified several factors contributing to this unusual traffic jam. According to Joint Commissioner (Traffic) MN Anucheth, the volume of traffic on September 27 was twice the normal level. Typically, Wednesdays witness a vehicle count of 1.5 to 2 lakh, but the count reached 3.5 lakh by 7.30 pm on September 27. One of the reasons for the surge in traffic was IT employees working on the corridor leaving early for home due to the long weekend coming ahead.
The Joint Commissioner further said that other factors, such as water logging due to rain and multiple vehicle breakdowns between 3.30 pm and 5 pm on roads already narrow due to metro work, led to the congestion.
The Outer Ring Road Companies Association advised its member companies to instruct their employees to delay their departure times to prevent getting stuck in the traffic on Outer Ring Road (ORR). Krishna Kumar Gowda, Operations Manager of ORRCA, said that after the bandh on Tuesday, many had come to their offices on ORR to work on Wednesday.
“Every week, Wednesday is the day which sees the highest volume of traffic on ORR. This time it doubled since Thursday is a government holiday and there’s a bandh on Friday. Monday is a holiday due to Gandhi Jayanthi. Due to the long weekend, many people chose to come to the office on September 27 to work offline,” he said.
He added that other factors like rain, water-logging, and metro work, all contributed to heavy traffic today on ORR. “The only way this can be resolved is if the government increases bus and feeder bus facilities across ORR. People also need to explore options such as carpooling,” Krishna Kumar Gowda said.