Bangalore gets jam-med, govt breaks into a sweat

Bangalore gets jam-med, govt breaks into a sweat
Shweta Ganesh Kumar / CNN-IBN
Published on Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 09:34 in Nation » India section
Tags: Bangalore, Traffic , Bangalore
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Bangalore: Bangalore, also known as the Garden City has now become synonymous with traffic jams. A study by the Center for Science and Environment says more than 1,000 new vehicles hit the city's roads everyday - but the roads aren't getting any bigger resulting in a gridlock.

“I reach my office with great difficulty every day,” says a resident of Bangalore.

Another resident adds, “I think traffic is a big problem-it affects everything.”

Adding to these problems is the city's unprecedented industrial development, which attracts thousands of people everyday. The city's narrow roads have not kept pace, and any move to widen them falls foul of environmentalists who don't want the city's green cover touched, for fear of making Bangalore even more polluted.

Pedestrians complain about being unable to cross roads without risking their lives. And vehicle owners say, “Finding parking space in Bangalore is not possible at all.”

The state of Bangalore’s traffic even has the state government in a sweat.

“Bangalore itself is losing Rs 4,500 to Rs 7,000 every year as a loss due to congestions, delays and accidents,” says Traffic and Transportation advisor, Government of Karnataka, M N Sreehari.

Additional Commissioner Traffic, KC Ramamurthy adds, “Bangalore city can comfortably transport around 10 lakh vehicles with proper mobility. Now the vehicle strength has crossed Rs 32 lakh. We're trying to implement a number of measures and schemes to ensure that at a given point of time vehicles on the road a minimum.”

Experts say mass transit is a possible solution to these jams. Yet according to estimates only 30 per cent of Bangloreans use public transport something, which might change when the metro comes up.