12 lakh private vehicles from tech parks used Bengaluru’s Outer Ring Road in last 4 days

Wednesdays and Thursdays pose significant challenges in traffic management because IT firms record high attendance of employees transitioning from one shift to another. Most tech parks work in full capacity on Wednesday, given that both the employees who report to work for the first three days of the week and those who do so for the last three days are present.

Following the infamous September 27 congestion, the traffic police decided to seek from the Outer Ring Road Companies Association (ORRCA) a daily count of vehicles entering the Outer Ring Road tech parks in order to manage traffic effectively. On the basis of this data, the police aim to plan a staggered exit for the IT professionals after analysing the number of vehicles entering the tech parks on a given day. They also suggest the companies start early and close early.

Kuldeep Kumar Jain, DCP, traffic (east division), said, “The most challenging days to manage traffic are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday is more important given the transition in shifts. Because of the data, we are able to analyse the number of vehicles, based on which we are issuing traffic advisories and managing traffic effectively. We will ban heavy vehicles one hour before the peak starts, ideally before 4 pm, if the vehicle count in tech parks is high.”

“We are advising the companies to plan a staggered exit, especially on Wednesdays. We do not want the IT employees to exit at the same time…,” he added.

ORRCA president Manas Das said that the data-driven approach might just be one part of the solution. “We need a coordinated and collective approach from government bodies to ease the traffic situation on ORR. We are open to self-regulation, but we need enough mobility options such as metro and first-mile and last-mile connectivity, among others. Working from home as per the DULT advisory was suitable given the Covid situation. But at this time of the hour, we need to report to the workplace to get things going,” he said.

While the ORR metro, car pooling, shuttle bus pooling are some of the mobility options chalked out to decongest traffic on the notorious stretch, commuters also believe that the much-awaited alternative route to Kempegowda International Airport can reduce some stress on ORR.

The Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited has been dragging its feet on work on the alternative route through Budigere-Hoskote Crossroad, which is more likely to benefit airport commuters from east Bengaluru, including KR Puram, Whitefield and the surrounding areas. This will in turn also reduce the stress on ORR, which is mostly sought after by the airport-goers from the east of Bengaluru.

Meanwhile, an ORRCA team attended a meeting called by the labour department on Thursday to discuss revisiting the working hours of industrial units, factories, companies and establishments to reduce traffic congestion.

Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar will meet an ORRCA team on Saturday along with officials of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited to discuss mobility and other civic-related issues.