Vaish D R

Bengaluru is about to make an already Broken Traffic System Worse and here are my 2 cents as an Urban-Designer trying to warn @CMofKarnataka @krishnabgowda of the Frankenstein's monster they are creating. The decision to impose an 18-month disruption on Ballari Road, one of Bengaluru’s principal airport and northern arterial corridors, needs to be examined as a traffic inconvenience, economic and urban-planning decision with potentially citywide consequences. The @BDAOfficialGok has begun construction of a four-lane elevated corridor between the UAS Staff Quarters and Mehkri Circle, a roughly 1.6-km stretch, with work scheduled to last 18 months. During this period, all light, medium and heavy goods vehicles, KSRTC buses and private buses are prohibited from using the affected stretch. (Bengaluru Traffic Police advisory, reported in The New Indian Express, November 6, 2026; Business Standard, November 6, 2026.) The project may eventually be useful. But the issue is that Bengaluru is attempting major surgery on one of its most important transport arteries while the patient is already suffering from multiple organ failure. And the alternative routes make the situation potentially worse. 1) Bengaluru is already operating at an extraordinary level of congestion According to the TomTom Traffic Index 2025, Bengaluru recorded a congestion level of 74.4% and commuters lost an estimated 168 hours annually during rush-hour traffic. A typical 10-km journey took approximately 36 minutes, while rush-hour speeds were around 13.9 km/h. This means Bengaluru is not closing or constraining a road in a city with spare capacity. It is removing capacity from a transport system that is already close to saturation. When a relatively free-flowing city closes an arterial road, traffic redistributes. But when Bengaluru closes or constrains an arterial road, the congestion does not redistribute neatly. It cascades. One junction backs up another. That junction blocks a feeder road. The feeder road blocks a neighborhood road. Then navigation apps begin sending traffic through every available lane, service road and residential street. 2) The most alarming part of the plan is the quality of the so-called “alternative routes” This is where the official advisory deserves far more scrutiny. The diversions include routes through: A) Old High Grounds Junction; B) Kalpana Junction; C) Old Udaya TV Junction; D) Cantonment Railway Station; E) Tannery Road; F) Nagawara Road; G) Mathikere Road; H) BEL Circle; I) Hebbal Ring Road; J) Goraguntepalya; K) Dr Rajkumar Road; L) Bamboo Bazaar; M) Queens Road; N) Margosa Road; O) the service road in front of Baptist Hospital; P) CBI Junction; Q) Anand Nagar Main Road; R) RT Nagar and Jayamahal. (Bengaluru Traffic Police advisory, reported in The New Indian Express, November 6, 2026.) Now look at the absurdity of this. Bengaluru is diverting traffic from a major multi-lane arterial road onto a patchwork of urban roads, junctions, service roads and narrow stretches. Several of these are not equivalent substitutes for Ballari Road. They are local urban roads designed primarily for: A) neighbourhood traffic; B) local commercial activity; C) residential access; D) buses; E) pedestrians; F) mixed traffic. Some sections effectively narrow to one usable lane in each direction, while others suffer from bottlenecks created by parked vehicles, commercial activity, junctions, bus stops and pedestrian movement. The official diversion plan, therefore, appears to assume that roads with vastly different capacities can somehow absorb traffic displaced from one of Bengaluru’s principal northern arterials. That is a perfect example of how not to do diversion strategy. In simpler terms—it is a great example of capacity mismatch. 3) A multi-lane arterial cannot simply be replaced by a one-lane or narrow urban road. This is basic transport engineering. The carrying capacity of a road depends on: number of lanes; a) lane width; b) junction frequency; c) turning movements; d) pedestrian crossings; e) parking; f) bus stops; g) roadside activity; h) traffic composition. Ballari Road is a major arterial designed to carry large volumes of through traffic. Compare that with some of the proposed alternatives. The Baptist Hospital service road The advisory explicitly directs traffic from Hebbal towards Bengaluru city to enter the service road in front of Baptist Hospital, continue up to CBI Junction, and then rejoin Ballari Main Road. (The New Indian Express, November 6, 2026; The News Minute, November 6, 2026.) A service road is, by definition, not designed to replace a major arterial. It is designed for local access. It serves: a) hospitals; b) local properties; c) turning vehicles; d) pedestrians; e) local traffic. And now significant diverted traffic is expected to use it. This is precisely the sort of planning that creates a catastrophic bottleneck. A road designed for local access becomes an emergency bypass for a city. 4) The situation is already deteriorating around Baptist Hospital and Mehkri Circle This is not merely theoretical. Reports published as the work began stated that barricades and narrowed carriageways were already shifting congestion towards Baptist Hospital and Mehkri Circle. Commuters reported that the road outside the UAS Staff Quarters had narrowed, while crowded service roads and peak-hour congestion were already worsening the situation. (Bangalore Mirror, November 6, 2026.) That is an extraordinarily important warning. The project is already generating the bottlenecks everyone feared before full-scale construction has even progressed. The congestion is being pushed rather than solved with the bottlenecks simply moved. This is a classic problem in Bengaluru's infrastructure planning: A bottleneck is removed at one point only to be recreated somewhere else. If the road narrows before Mehkri Circle, traffic accumulates there. If traffic is pushed away from Hebbal, it accumulates around Baptist Hospital. If traffic is diverted from Ballari Road, it accumulates on the diversion roads. You have not solved the traffic. You have moved the queue. 5) Bamboo Bazaar and Queens Road are not a substitute for a major airport arterial One of the official alternatives for traffic travelling from KIA towards central Bengaluru is: Hebbal > Nagawara Junction > Bamboo Bazaar > Queens Road > central city. (Bengaluru Traffic Police advisory, reported in The New Indian Express, November 6, 2026.) This route should immediately raise questions. Bamboo Bazaar and the surrounding central-city network are already characterised by: a) dense urban activity; b) commercial traffic; c) pedestrians; d) frequent junctions; e) local access requirements. The fundamental problem with this route is not just its length. It is its lack of uninterrupted capacity. An arterial corridor allows traffic to move continuously. A dense urban route forces traffic repeatedly to not travel according to the theoretical speed limit. It travels at the speed of the slowest bottleneck. So directing a large volume of airport-bound or airport-origin traffic through such roads risks creating congestion far away from the actual construction site. 6. Margosa Road and the Yeshwanthpur diversion create another dangerous pressure point Traffic travelling from Yeshwanthpur towards central Bengaluru has been advised to proceed through BHEL Junction, turn near Maramma Circle, and continue through Margosa Road. (The New Indian Express, November 6, 2026; The News Minute, November 6, 2026.) Again, this demonstrates the fundamental weakness of the diversion strategy. Margosa Road and its connecting roads are part of a dense urban environment. They are not purpose-built, high-capacity express corridors. Once significant additional traffic enters such roads, every local constraint becomes a multiplier: a) one illegally parked vehicle; b) one delivery truck; c) one bus stopping; d) one pedestrian crossing; e) one vehicle making a turn. On a high-capacity arterial, these events may cause minor slowing. On a narrow urban road with constrained lane capacity, they can bring the entire corridor to a halt. And once a single-lane or effectively single-lane section stops flowing, there is nowhere for traffic to escape. 7) This is the mathematics of a bottleneck Consider the basic difference between a multi-lane arterial and a narrow diversion road. Let us use a simplified illustration. If an arterial has several continuously usable lanes in one direction, it can theoretically process several thousand vehicles per hour, depending on traffic composition and junction conditions. Now push even a fraction of that traffic onto a route where a key section has only: one effective lane; with multiple junctions; buses stopping; pedestrians; turning vehicles. The bottleneck determines the capacity of the entire route. This is the key principle: The capacity of a transport corridor is determined by its narrowest point. So even if 90% of the diversion route is wide, one narrow section can create a queue that stretches kilometres backwards. That is precisely why single-lane and service-road diversions are so dangerous. They are not merely slower, they are highly vulnerable to complete breakdown. 8) One stalled vehicle could paralyse an entire diversion route This is another problem the authorities appear to underestimate. On a broad multi-lane road, if a vehicle breaks down: traffic can often move around it. On a narrow or effectively single-lane diversion: one broken-down car; one minor accident; one stalled bus; one delivery vehicle; can reduce capacity dramatically. On some narrow stretches, it can create an almost complete blockage. Then the queue grows backwards. The junction behind it fills. That junction blocks cross-traffic. And the disruption spreads. Bengaluru Traffic Police (@Jointcptraffic ) itself routinely reports severe congestion resulting from relatively localised incidents. The city simply does not have enough redundancy in its road network to absorb repeated shocks. (Bengaluru Traffic Police traffic updates.) btp.karnataka.gov.in Now imagine this happening while an enormous additional traffic load is being deliberately pushed onto alternative roads for 18 months (though with the scale of project and precedents it can't be less than 3 years). 9) Hebbal is already one of Bengaluru's most critical bottlenecks The entire diversion plan ultimately runs into the larger problem of Hebbal. Hebbal is not just another junction. It connects: a) the airport corridor; b) Outer Ring Road; c) North Bengaluru; d) Yeshwanthpur; e) Nagawara; f) central Bengaluru. The current construction project is itself part of a much larger ₹2,215-crore Hebbal decongestion project, which includes a six-lane cut-and-cover tunnel, an elevated corridor and a rotary flyover. (The News Minute, November 6, 2026.) That reveals the irony. The government recognises that Hebbal is one of Bengaluru's most severe bottlenecks. Yet, during construction, the diversion strategy places even more pressure on the wider Hebbal ecosystem. And reports already indicate that barricades and narrowed carriageways have shifted congestion towards Baptist Hospital and Mehkri Circle. (Bangalore Mirror, November 6, 2026.) 10) The airport is far too important for such a fragile diversion strategy Kempegowda International Airport handled 44.47 million passengers in FY 2025–26. That is approximately: 121,800 passengers every day. It also handled: 532,000 tonnes of cargo; approximately 280,800 aircraft movements; an average of 769 aircraft movements per day. International passenger traffic increased 23.9%, while total passenger traffic increased 6.2%. (Bangalore International Airport Ltd./Airports Council International Asia-Pacific, April 30, 2026.) The problem is therefore much larger than: “Some people will have to take a different road.” Bengaluru is effectively experimenting with the reliability of access to an airport handling more than 44 million passengers annually. A global city cannot have airport connectivity dependent on a collection of: a) narrow roads; b) service roads; c) dense neighbourhood corridors; d) junction-heavy urban routes. That is not resilient infrastructure. Rather It is fragile infrastructure. 11) The ban on buses makes the congestion problem even more irrational KSRTC and private buses have been completely prohibited from the affected stretch. (The New Indian Express, November 6, 2026.) This is particularly troubling. A bus may carry dozens of people. A private car may carry one or two. If the goal is to minimise the number of vehicles using alternative routes, collective transport should be protected and prioritised, not pushed into longer, more congested diversions without adequate alternatives. The likely consequence is predictable: Slower buses > less reliable public transport > more private cars > more congestion. Bengaluru is already caught in this vicious cycle. This project risks accelerating it. 12) Goods vehicles being pushed onto longer routes will raise costs across the economy The restrictions apply to: a) light goods vehicles; b) medium goods vehicles; c) heavy goods vehicles. (The New Indian Express, November 6, 2026; Business Standard, November 6, 2026.) Every additional kilometer cost money, and so does every hour. For logistics operators, longer diversions mean: a) more fuel consumption; b) more driver hours; c) more vehicle wear; c) fewer deliveries per day; d) more unpredictable schedules. Those costs eventually pass through: Transporter > distributor > business > consumer. Bengaluru will pay. The only question is where the bill eventually appears. 13) Bengaluru's economy is particularly vulnerable to lost time Bengaluru's economic model depends heavily on: a) technology; b) professional services; c) consulting; d) finance; e) global business; f) high-value knowledge work. All these sectors depend on time. While a software engineer stuck in traffic loses working hours, a consultant misses a client meeting. A senior executive leaves for the airport two hours earlier “just in case.” An international visitor spends a significant portion of the day travelling from airport to meeting. No individual delay destroys an economy. But millions of small delays do. This is the real economic multiplier of congestion. Suppose, purely as an illustration, that 100,000 journeys suffer only 20 minutes of additional delay every day because of the cumulative effect of the Ballari Road disruption. That equals: 2 million minutes lost every day or: 33,333 hours every day. Across 300 working days: 10 million hours of additional travel time. The actual number may be higher or lower. It depends on the number of affected journeys and the delays. But the principle is mathematically unavoidable: Small delays multiplied across a metropolitan population become enormous economic losses. 14) The real disaster will be unpredictability There is something worse than a slow journey. An unpredictable journey. If an airport trip consistently takes 90 minutes, people can plan around it. But if it takes: 45 minutes one day; 70 minutes the next; two hours after a minor accident; three hours during rain; then the entire system becomes unreliable. Businesses compensate by adding buffer time. People leave earlier and meetings are scheduled differently. Flights are reached hours in advance. The economic loss is therefore often larger than the actual time spent in traffic. Because uncertainty creates precautionary time loss. Bengaluru's citizens will increasingly begin every important journey with the same question: “How early do I have to leave to make sure Bengaluru traffic does not destroy my plans?” That is not how a globally competitive city should function. 15) The sequencing is the real planning failure The elevated corridor may well improve traffic once completed. But the question remains: Why was the city not given sufficient alternative capacity before this disruption began? The ideal sequence would have been: Strengthen alternative public transport. Improve junctions on diversion routes. Widen or redesign critical bottlenecks. Protect high-capacity bus movement. Ensure airport alternatives are operational. Then begin a long-term restriction of a major arterial. Instead, Bengaluru appears to have chosen: Reduce capacity first. Ask people to adjust later. Promise relief in 18 months. That is precisely why the decision is so worrying. Refer to the image attached (for numbers behind the problem) (Sources: TomTom Traffic Index 2025; Bengaluru Traffic Police advisory; Bangalore International Airport Ltd./ACI Asia-Pacific; The New Indian Express; The News Minute; Bangalore Mirror.) The conclusion I get to literally brutal The biggest problem is not the flyover. The biggest problem is the assumption that a major arterial road can be temporarily replaced by narrow urban streets, service roads and junction-heavy routes without devastating consequences. It cannot. A little understanding of Urban Design and Urban Planning would tell you: a) A multi-lane arterial and a one-lane or constrained local road are not interchangeable. b) A service road can never behave as expressway. c) A neighborhood street can never be placeholder for an airport corridor. And once traffic reaches the narrowest point of these alternative routes, the entire system will move at the capacity of that bottleneck. That is why this could become far worse than a normal construction-related inconvenience. Bengaluru already has one of the most congested traffic systems in the world. It is now deliberately pushing more vehicles onto roads that, in several sections, have less capacity, more junctions and more local activity than the arterial they are supposed to replace. The likely result is obvious: Traffic will not disappear, rather It will invade into the city, service roads, neighborhoods, commercial streets and into already overloaded junctions. And for the next 18 months(tgough practically it will be 36 months), Bengaluru's residents, businesses and airport travellers will pay the price for what appears to be profoundly poor sequencing of infrastructure. The city is trying to solve tomorrow's traffic problem by making today's city increasingly unliveable.