Bangalore — which may soon become Bengalooru because the politicians want it — is already on the world map as one of the most happening cities. Thanks to IT revolution, Bangalore got listed a decade ago among the top 10 metropolises in the world and its continued surge in the international job market led to the coinage of a new word - “Bangalored.” Now, a prestigious business magazine has placed Bangalore among 12 cities like London, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore in the category of “best places to do business in the wired world.”

Flattered? Don’t be. For a city with such a high reputation, its infrastructure and basic amenities remind us that in all other respects it is very much part of the Third World. Pot-holed roads, dim lights, chaotic traffic, erratic power supply, soaring crime graph and the works.

Perhaps a combination of these factors lead to another image-buster: One of the worst accident records in recent times.

Along with a phenomenal increase in population, Bangalore, over the last one decade, has been witnessing a boom in the number of vehicles on the road.

Poor public transport
Though there is little scope for widening the roads, the city has been adding almost 4 lakh vehicles a year, at the rate of nearly 900 vehicles per day.

All types of vehicles, from push-carts to BMWs compete for the same road space.

With an abysmal public transport system, the number of two-wheelers on the city roads is spiralling: At the last count, out of 29.54 lakh vehicles, 21.10 lakh were two-wheelers! And the experts reckon that the roads in the City can take a load of only 7 lakh vehicles.This hap-hazard growth and lack of planning has turned Bangalore roads into veritable death traps. Delhi tops the list of road accidents in the country, but Bangalore with much smaller vehicle population comes a dubious second.

In 2004 for instance, 903 people were killed on Bangalore roads, compared to 1907 in Delhi, 534 in Mumbai, 605 in Chennai and 420 in Kolkata.

Interestingly, the death toll in Mumbai and Chennai are much less because those two cities have a good public transport, including train services, which Bangalore doesn’t.     

Senior police officer M A Saleem, who has studied and managed Bangalore traffic for a number of years, reckons that it is the mixed traffic and bad roads which are contributing to increasing number of accidents. “About 45 per cent of people depend on public transport, 32 per cent on two-wheelers, 7 per cent depend on cars and around 15 per cent use auto-rickshaws and other vehicles. Dependency on personal vehicles, excessive speed, violation of traffic norms, mechanical faults and pathetic condition of roads, besides huge vehicular population, are leading to more accidents,” says he.

Narrow roads
 Unlike in other metros, the police also tend to be more lax with the trucks and lorries (after taking bribes?) and allow them to operate freely even on busy roads during day time. It is a common sight on the narrow city roads to see buses, trucks, vans, cars, rickshaws, motorcycles, mopeds, bicycles, people, cows and dogs all jostling for space, sometimes even using footpaths!

Alarmingly, the casualty statistics indicate that 39 per cent of victims are riders or pillions of two-wheelers, 23 per cent are pedestrians; a majority of those killed or injured are in the age group of 20 to 29 years.

This clearly shows that two-wheelers and pedestrians are the most vulnerable.

Experts say that accidents can be minimised with better road sense among people and better traffic management. An “inner core ring road” bypassing the central business district and connecting the suburbs, intersection re-engineering, synchronised traffic signals, better footpaths with overbridges and hastening the construction of flyovers and railway bridges are among the measures, the police anticipate, that may bring down the accident rate. Cancellation of licenses of repeat traffic rule violators may be resorted to as a punitive measure.

“The number of traffic police is little over 2,500. The City needs four times more for better management. The police, at best, can ensure smooth traffic. Unless steps are taken to improve the road conditions and lessen the number of vehicles with the introduction of mass transport, things will not improve,” says a senior police officer.