Bengaluru: To mitigate the horror that is the Bengaluru traffic, the Karnataka government is planning several measures, chief among them a Rs 9,700 crore double-decker viaduct project, which the cabinet approved last week. But will it reduce traffic congestion or only add to the problem?
In another measure, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah Tuesday wrote to Azim Premji, the founder of IT bellwether company, Wipro, to help decongest the Outer Ring Road (ORR) by allowing movement through the Wipro campus.
The CM said that the ORR corridor at Iblur junction during peak hours adversely impacts mobility, productivity and the quality of urban life.
“In this context, I wish to explore the possibility of allowing limited vehicular movement through the Wipro campus, subject to mutually agreed terms and necessary security considerations,” Siddaramaiah wrote in the letter to Azim Premji.
He added that preliminary assessments by experts indicated that this would decongest adjoining stretches on the ORR by as much as 30 percent.
The ORR is the biggest technology corridor in Bengaluru—possibly India—with a high concentration of tech and corporate workers who largely rely on private transport due to delays in metro and other infrastructure projects.
The double-decker roads will be built under metro lines but above ground-level, providing an additional layer for traffic. Once complete, it will cover 37.121 km, making it the one of the longest such infrastructure projects in India.
The double-decker flyover is among the pet projects of Karnataka Dy CM, D.K. Shivakumar who believes this will revolutionise traffic movement in one of the world’s most congested cities.
The first stretch of this project, over the infamous and perpetually jammed Silk Board junction, is expected to open by the end of the year, in what will be a test of its effectiveness in easing congestion.
‘Govt does not consult experts’
But experts say the double decker roads will only add to the traffic.
In just one financial year (2024-25), nearly 8 lakh new vehicles were added to Bengaluru’s already congested roads. This included nearly 5 lakh two-wheelers and 1.5 lakh four-wheelers. Bengaluru, which houses about a quarter of the state’s entire population, accounted for more than half of all new vehicles registered in Karnataka, according to government data.
Experts say that the double-decker road, or Shivakumar’s other pet project, the Rs 40,000 crore tunnel road will not help. “The way decision making is (in government), I don’t think they are interested in scientific data or result-based decision-making. All these projects and what they are trying to do, doesn’t really have a scientific basis,” Professor Ashish Verma from the IISc Sustainable Transportation Lab, told ThePrint.
He added that other cities across the country face a similar fate which leans more towards projects that can yield high returns in terms of corruption and less towards sustainable solutions.
At least three different arms of the government’s transportation wing have expressed their reservations about the Tunnel Road. But this has not dampened the resolve of the government to go ahead with the project.
Several studies suggest that projects like double-decker roads or tunnel roads, that offer travel time reduction, encourage private vehicle usage and reduce public transit ridership. This of course, apart from exacerbating environmental and social disparities.
According to a study by the Centre for Study of Science, Technology & Policy (CSTEP), transportation accounts for 68 percent of particulate matter in Bengaluru.
In contrast, just one stretch of the Metro’s Yellow line that stretches from R.V. Road till Electronic City reduced congestion by 30.6 percent, according to Shivakumar.
He said that during peak hours, traffic congestion was reduced by as much as 69 percent on weekday mornings.
Bengaluru is moving better!
Yellow Line has cut traffic by 37.5% during peak hours, easing the congestion at Silk Board, BTM, Madivala & Electronic City.
Step into the metro, step out of traffic. #NammaMetro | #YellowLine pic.twitter.com/j5MIcTSvfn
— DK Shivakumar (@DKShivakumar) September 19, 2025
‘Other cities face same problem’
In 2019, Bengaluru was adjudged to have the worst traffic among 415 cities in 57 countries by Netherland-based global provider of navigation, traffic and map products, TomTom.
In 2024, it was ranked 3rd as, on average, it took just over 34 minutes to travel 10 kms in the city. In reality, it takes more than double that time in peak hours.
According to Bengaluru city police, congestion lengths vary from 1.6 kms on a Tuesday morning to over 2.6 kms on a Saturday evening. Karnataka’s archaic policies are compounding these problems.
The state, which prides itself as the innovation capital of the country, has banned two-wheeler taxis, disallowed car-pooling and restricted app-based bus hailing services.
The lack of options for commuters with long-drawn delays in completion of projects like Metro and suburban rail, has pushed people back into higher private vehicle usage.
This in turn has led to increased traffic congestion, slower vehicle movement and loss of productivity due to poor road conditions.
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.
Shivakumar’s statements, equating demands for better roads to ‘blackmail’ was criticised by all, including industry captains.
Since then, the Siddaramaiah-led government has tried to cover potholes across the city.
“We are filling about 200 potholes in each of the five corporations adding up to a total of 1,000 potholes per day. Officials and workers are working amidst the rains too,” Shivakumar said Tuesday. He added that potholes are a problem across the country but only Bengaluru was facing the brunt of criticism.
There have been questions raised about the quality of this pothole-fixing exercise and the costs associated with it.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: Hyderabad is no longer the better Bengaluru. Our roads are flooding and full of traffic
Traffic data collected by the State govt shows over 30 % reduction in congestion after opening of the Yellow line. By planning double decker flyovers , the Govt is ignoring it’s own data , which clearly shows that Metro is the way to go for high density corridors.
Again, by not increasing road infrastructure the govt will send a clear message that they do not expect citizens to increase the usage of cars.
Instead, the current plans of the Karnataka govt are sending exactly the opposite message.