High-flying tech hits potholes in India's Silicon Valley

Home to nearly 12 million people and state capital of Karnataka, Bengaluru is the 'Silicon Valley' of the world's fifth biggest economy-hosting thousands of start-ups, outsourcing firms, and global tech giants from Google to Microsoft. Yet its flagship Outer Ring Road business district is clogged with traffic, pocked with potholes, and often flooded during the monsoon

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Ecologist Harini Nagendra shows an old map of Bengaluru during an interview at the Azim Premji University.

In India's tech capital Bengaluru, the morning "rush hour" lasts so long it devours half the workday, throttling productivity in a city often viewed as the poster child of a booming economy.

Entrepreneur RK Misra, co-founder of a multimillion-dollar startup, avoids scheduling in-person meetings until nearly noon -- then squeezes them in before gridlock returns.

The "situation is pretty bad. And it hurts by not being able to plan your day", Misra said, describing his gruelling 16-kilometre (nine mile) commute, which can take up to two hours at peak times.

"It also discourages people from doing anything other than work, because there's no work-life balance any more."

Bengaluru, home to nearly 12 million people and state capital of Karnataka, is the "Silicon Valley" of the world's fifth biggest economy - hosting thousands of startups, outsourcing firms, and global tech giants from Google to Microsoft.

Yet its flagship Outer Ring Road (ORR) business district is clogged with traffic, pocked with potholes, and often flooded during the monsoon. Water shortages plague the summer months.

The roughly 20-kilometre (12-mile) ORR corridor, lined with swanky tech parks, hosts dozens of Fortune 500 offices, and more than a million employees.