Bangalore or Bengalooru, country’s blazing beantown that prides itself as Asia’s IT acropolis, is ironically bogged down and blighted by its own blooming growth thanks to the infrastructural bottlenecks that has besieged the City in the wake of its stupendous growth. Such is the abysmal situation of City’s road infrastructure that every time there’s an international conference it becomes the talk of the town. Even otherwise, the general litany that reaches shrill pitch day in and day out about the awful state of affairs, of road and other infrastructure, there is no let to it.

The snarling traffic jams at every junction, snail paced movement of vehicles, road rages, and compounding air and noise pollution, have all brought a bad name to Bengalooru. With governance caught in its own logjam of power politics, Bengalooru’s wailing for early way out seems to be drowned in the din of politics.

While stellar strides of Bangalore in IT and other sectors may have burnished Brand Bangalore’s name on the global marquee and etched for it a permanent niche on the firmament of city of choice to do business with and be in, the sad reality is the City is unable to wish away all its infrastructural shortcomings. With flyovers, underpasses, roads broadening and Namma Metro being taken up the traffic invariably crawls. No one is trying to turn Nostradamus.

Take any important destination within the City. Be it International Technology Park at Whitefield, the Electronic City on Hosur Road, Bangalore International Exhibition Centre on Tumkur Road or Peenya Industrial Estate, or the upcoming Bangalore International Airport at Devanahalli. Reaching any of these and other similar destinations in the City is virtually a devil’s nightmare and is like having participated in the long distance road rally.

Why even weaving one’s way be to the neighbouring mall or multiplex or workplace within the city centre is like coming out of a traffic chakrayuh. All these is further compounded when even a short spell of shower is enough to throw the City’s entire traffic out of gear. That the country’s Silicon capital should still wallow in the dubious distinction of having to do with the worst, traffic-heavy unmotorable and unplanned roads, among its other infrastructural bottlenecks, is indeed a bitter commentary on a City that today seeks to turn itself into India’s Singapore.

Yes, projects aplenty have been rolled out posthaste to address the problem but in the absence of any political will thanks to the apathy of governments and total lack of vision at the helm, Bengalooru and its citizenry seem fated to live with the infrastructural Gordian knot. With redemption nowhere in sight it will be wishful thinking to hope that the city fathers with get their act together and bring back the byte into Bangalore that has been Bangalored by bottlenecks.