BENGALURU: India’s Silicon Valley Bengaluru’s infamous traffic snarls continued through 2024. State government has come up with an ambitious plan of constructing tunnel roads, elevated corridors and underpasses to tackle persistent traffic congestion. However, mobility experts repeatedly say these big-ticket projects will only move vehicles, but not people.
They argue that it will only shift traffic congestion from one point to another and will not solve problems. Bengaluru already has many such flyovers and underpasses, which were aimed at solving congestion, but failed. Yet the announcements of one infrastructure project after another indicates that the government is hardly listening.
Coming to the public transport, Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) added many new buses, including the e-buses, however the total fleet is just over 6,000, while the Transport Minister himself said the city needs 10,000 buses to serve the growing mobility demands. In contrast, the number of private vehicles in Bengaluru kept adding, now standing at a whopping 1.2 crore.
Although the state transport department fixed the fare for private cabs, it is not followed and there is no action from the department. The same applies to autos. In the absence of any strong enforcement, autos are fleecing customers even during non-peak hours.
Karnataka Electric Bike Taxi Scheme, which was notified in 2021, by the state transport department was withdrawn. With this, bike taxis — e-bike taxis and the white board two-wheelers used as bike taxis — were considered illegal. However, bike taxis continue to operate as usual as the matter is in the court.
As a welcome move aimed at promoting sustainable transport, the Sustainable Transportation Lab, Indian Institute of Science, in association with Urban Morph set up India’s first Centre of Excellence for Active Mobility.
Only a small stretch of Bengaluru Metro, the Green Line extension for 3.14 km from Madavara to Nagasandra, was launched in 2024. After a delay of five years, the first train on this stretch finally chugged off on November 7, 2024. With this launch, Bengaluru Metro’s total network coverage extends to 76.95 km with 69 stations. Ridership has had a marked improvement with the 9 lakh patronage breached on three occasions.
The April 2024 deadline to launch the much-awaited RV Road-Bommasandra Line via Silk Board and Electronic City, was missed. It was pushed to September and then to December, missing the deadlines again. The infrastructure for the line is ready, but the Chinese company supplying coaches to them has delayed it. On February 14, the first such train arrived from China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC). The second driverless train is expected to arrive by mid-January from its partner, Titagarh Rail Systems, near Kolkata. The regular trains required to reduce rush on the Purple and Green Lines, also being supplied by CRRC. The first one will reach Bengaluru by January 15.
Tunnelling work has been completed by all the nine Tunnel Boring Machines for the underground corridor of the Kalena Agrahara-Nagawara Line. It began in July 2020, ending in October 2024 for the 13.76 km underground stretch on the line.
Foundation stone was laid in June 2022 for the 148-km Bengaluru Suburban Rail project with four corridors. Tenders have so far been awarded for civil works only in two corridors. Work has begun only on the Baiyappanahalli-Chikkabanavara (Mallige Line) and Heelalige-Rajanukunte (Kanaka Line) sections. It was also announced that they both would only be partially open by April 2027. The full project is likely to be opened by December 2028 or June 2029, pushing the deadline by two full years.