Waiting for a reboot in India’s IT hub

The third of a six-part series looks at Bengaluru’s transport challenges and the way forward to resolve some of them

- AVIK DAS

Suvendu, a technical director at an American semiconductor company, drives his car to work from his home in an eastern suburb of Bengaluru.

“I stay in Varthur where the frequency of buses is quite poor. Moreover, if I have to take a bus from my home to my office on Outer Ring Road, I will have to change twice. Also, most of the buses which ply on this route are non-AC, and they get extremely crowded during office hours,” says the senior executive.

Balaram, who works as a cook in Marathahalli, another neighbourhood in eastern Bengaluru, has been here since making his way from West Bengal in 2002. He too takes his motorbike when he has to go to the city centre. “Getting buses from those areas back to Marathahalli is difficult as they are often late.”

Both immigrants (Suvendu is from Tripura) but on opposite ends of the economic scale, the two men face very similar problems commuting to work, which can take up to an hour-and-a-half. Both live on the eastern fringes in bustling neighbourhoods that came up as Bengaluru expanded in keeping with its status as India’s IT hub. And both have been left coping with failing infrastructure and abysmal public transport.

Bengaluru, India’s Silicon Valley, is home to perhaps every prominent global technology company across its famed business parks. Yet, the city has become better known for its notorious traffic snarls — caused by narrow roads, limited public transport and mushrooming private vehicles. Unlike Delhi and Mumbai, cities like Bengaluru that have witnessed rapid urbanisation relatively recently — since the mid-90s — an established and well-oiled public transport system continues to remain a distant dream.