A pretty little girl, who grew up into a beautiful woman, is today suffering from severe congestion in her body’s network of arteries and veins that transport blood. It’s called vascular congestion.
Her blood vessels have swelled, narrowing the passage through which blood flows. It can be treated, but there’s a problem that’s keeping treatment out of reach.
Specialists trained to treat her are kept away, while non-specialists call the shots. That stalls curing this “beautiful woman”, Namma Bengaluru.
The analogy should not be ignored. Roads are like arteries and veins through which blood flows smoothly only when they are unobstructed. The result of that happening is well known, and that’s precisely what is happening with Bengaluru.
The spurt in her growth, especially from the mid-1980s onwards, has taken the city’s population to about 1.43 crore now from approximately 34 lakhs then.
Her vehicle population has drastically risen from about 3.06 lakhs in the mid-1980s to 1.20 crore now. But the growth has not been matched with deservingly adequate road infrastructure.
Absence of scientific application of mind and poor geometry while designing roads, poor quality of material used in laying them, lack of quality footpaths, poorly designed flyovers, ineffective push to encourage citizens to take public transport, and the lack of disciplined motoring behaviour, have cumulatively led to severe traffic congestion across Bengaluru.
Adding to the woes are unauthorised buildings, leniency towards building norms violation, encroachments of stormwater drains, weak enforcement of traffic laws, and an illegal “circular economy” concerning road maintenance – particularly the dreaded potholes.
Poor road quality pushes for frequent maintenance, involving processes that encourage pocket-filling along the rungs of political and bureaucratic hierarchies rather than long-lasting pothole-filling.
Urban experts know it, and have pointed it out, too. They know what the solution is, but who is listening? They want the urban transport and planning domain to be handled by an exclusive department of specialists who can – and are qualified to – deal precisely with the factors causing Bengaluru her “vascular” problems.
Now, the heavily congested Iblur Junction on Outer Ring Road (ORR) is in focus. This is at the T-junction of ORR and Sarjapur Road, the IT corridor of south-east Bengaluru.
Traffic congestion in IT corridors is a sensitive issue – potential negative messaging to companies seeking to invest in Bengaluru and surrounding areas.
As a quick-fix solution, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah sought help from Azim Premji, Founder Chairman, Wipro, a leading IT company headquartered on Sarjapur Road and linked to Bengaluru since the late 1970s.
His September 19-dated letter to Premji appealed for allowing limited vehicular movement through the Wipro campus, as assessments by traffic and urban mobility experts indicated that “such a measure could reduce congestion on adjoining stretches of ORR by nearly 30%, particularly during peak office hours.”
Premji, on September 24, refused while apprehending “significant legal, governance and statutory challenges since it is an exclusive private property owned by a listed company not intended for public thoroughfare.”
He also pointed out that Wipro’s Sarjapur campus is a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) providing services to global customers, and that their contractual conditions mandated stringent, non-negotiable access control norms for governance and compliance.
“Moreover, public vehicular movement through a private property would not be effective as a sustainable, long-term solution,” he said.
Premji echoed precisely what experts have been saying all along, while pointing out that “there is unlikely to be a single point solution or a silver bullet to resolve it,” and highlighted that the most effective path forward is to commission a comprehensive scientific study “led by an entity with world-class expertise in urban transport management,” which would allow developing “a holistic roadmap of effective solutions that are implementable in the short, medium and long term.”
As a commitment to being part of the solution, Premji said, “Wipro will be pleased to engage this process and underwrite a significant portion of the cost for this expert study.”
The chief minister’s appeal to Premji – although well-intended – may itself reflect the state government’s weak approach in finding long-term solutions for Bengaluru’s problems. It could convey that although the state government is inviting companies to invest and set up facilities in Karnataka, there remains a possibility of depending on the companies themselves for solutions for its infrastructural shortcomings.
Besides, poor road and infrastructure conditions in Namma Bengaluru, especially post 1990s, have outlived political regimes in Karnataka, so there is no meaning in political parties blaming each other for the malaise that Bengaluru is in now.
Therefore, following Premji’s suggestion and offer, the focus now should shift to constituting a specialised service that can scientifically tackle the needs of urban planning, so that traffic congestion and poor road infrastructure no longer pose problems.
Beautiful Namma Bengaluru may still have hopes to set examples for other cities. But the ruling dispensation needs to understand that only specialists can treat her back to fitness. None else!