Bengaluru: As frustration mounts over Bengaluru’s traffic jams and potholed roads, the state government is considering a bold idea: a congestion tax on single-occupancy cars in high-density corridors.
The proposal is one of several ideas discussed at a meeting convened by the state government on Wednesday with corporate leaders and urban planners to discuss ways of easing the city’s chronic infrastructure problems.
The other proposals, part of a 90-day plan, include strict quality checks on the asphalting of roads and close monitoring of all ongoing infrastructure projects in the city.
The meeting was chaired by Karnataka Chief Secretary Shalini Rajneesh and attended by Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, urban planner and Yulu co-founder R.K. Mishra, and urban designer and architect Naresh Narasimhan, among others.
“We discussed imposing a congestion charge. If we enter the ORR (Outer Ring Road), and there is only one person in the car, you have to pay money,” Mishra told reporters.
He added that the tax would apply only to single-occupancy cars and would encourage more people to consider car-pooling, helping to decongest the city. He added that it can be used on the ORR and other high-density corridors or major roads as a way to discourage four-wheeler usage.
Bengaluru’s ORR is the city’s biggest technology corridor, housing almost all of the big global corporations. The road stretches from Hebbal on the northern side, all the way to Silk Board on the south. It is also one of the most congested roads in the city, adding to Bengaluru’s reputation of being a traffic nightmare.
Pothole-laden roads, incomplete infrastructure projects and waterlogging, among other problems, have become synonymous with India’s IT capital.
Other cities like Delhi have come up with solutions like ‘odd-even’ and mass transit options to decongest their roads. But in Bengaluru, delays in the completion of key public mass transit projects like the Metro and suburban rail, as well as stagnating bus fleets, have forced higher reliance on private vehicles.
The Siddaramaiah-led government has prioritised big-ticket projects like the Tunnel Road and a double-decker flyover over the completion of mass transit infrastructure.
Also Read: Bengaluru to Palghar, potholes are a death trap. AI startups racing to solve it
’90-day plan’
Mazumdar-Shaw, who has often criticised the state government and city corporation for civic apathy, said that the administration has assured to fix the problems that citizens in India’s IT capital are forced to endure.
“(The) government has now really told us that they are really going to support all these improvements in a big way. Citizens, too, must cooperate. In 90 days, we really hope that there will be a visible change,” Mazumdar-Shaw told reporters.
She said that in these 90 days, the administration needed to complete many tasks, such as road repair, making the city garbage-free and cleaning up sewage and drains.
Speaking to NDTV, Shaw said that allowing indiscriminate use of private vehicles should be deterred as it was not sustainable.
“We do need to come up with some deterrents where people are not allowed to come onto the streets the way they are. We have tried car pooling but it has never worked. But we have to get back to some of these measures. and we have to make sure that people abide by the law,” she said.
“And also the fact that whether it is pothole filling, asphalting, these are measures we have to do as quick fixes for the time being. Then gradually we will have to have permanent solutions,” she said.
Bengaluru’s crumbling infrastructure is constantly under attack from industry leaders and urban planners.
Other urban experts, who were not part of the meeting, said it was unfortunate that the highest government officials needed to focus on the most basic requirements.
It's unfortunate that the highest officials in the state have to focus on this, rather than economic competitiveness, productivity, housing, public education, etc. It's only when the cities can solve their problems themselves that the solutions will be permanent. Until then,…
— Ashwin Mahesh (@ashwinmahesh) September 24, 2025
“It’s unfortunate that the highest officials in the state have to focus on this, rather than economic competitiveness, productivity, housing, public education, etc. It’s only when the cities can solve their problems themselves that the solutions will be permanent. Until then, every once in a while, something else will be needed,” Ashwin Mahesh, an urban planner, said in response to a post by Mazumdar-Shaw’s on the meeting.
Entrepreneur T. Mohandas Pai, the founder of Aarin Capital, added that any congestion pricing without surplus public transport is a “farce and a very cruel burden on the citizens”. He also asked that private buses be allowed to run in Bengaluru.
Any congestion pricing without surplus public transport is a farce and a very cruel burden on citizens.where is the public transport to consider this? @shalinirajnish @kiranshaw @rk_misra @GBA_office Please allow private bus operators to run public bus services in city. We need… https://t.co/5J23To61CB
— Mohandas Pai (@TVMohandasPai) September 24, 2025
In a separate initiative, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah Tuesday wrote to Azim Premji, the founder of IT bellwether company Wipro, to help decongest the ORR by allowing movement through the Wipro campus in Iblur junction.
Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who is also the minister in charge of Bengaluru, has come under sharp criticism from all quarters, including the likes of Shaw Mohandas Pai, over the poor condition of infrastructure.
Shivakumar’s statements, equating demands for better roads with “blackmail”, were criticised by all, including industry captains.
Last week, this issue was highlighted by the chief executive of a startup, Blackbuck, fuelling concerns. Neighbouring states like Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have rolled out the red carpet to companies based out of Bengaluru, with the promise of better public infrastructure.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is among the founder-investors of ThePrint. Please click here for details on investors.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
Also Read: Road building is a money-making racket in India. And we have a very short memory