'Could have walked home faster’: Man’s three-hour Bengaluru's ORR traffic nightmare goes viral

Bengaluru: On Monday evening, May 18, heavy pre-monsoon rain lashed several parts of the city, turning key IT corridors into virtual rivers. Varun Rangarajan, a tech corridor commuter, took to social media platform X to share his frustration, writing that he began his journey from Bellandur at 5:17 pm but found himself hopelessly trapped in bumper-to-bumper traffic hours later.

According to Rangarajan’s post, shared at 8.52 pm, it took him a staggering 1.5 hours just to navigate a short a four-kilometre stretch from Kalyan Nagar to Manyata Tech Park.

“Left Bellandur at 5.17 pm today and still stuck on ORR. It's taken almost 1.5 hours to go from Kalyan Nagar to Manyata and there's not a single traffic police personnel in sight. Google Maps says it would've taken me almost the same time to walk home,” Rangarajan lamented in his post.

The post resonated with thousands of city residents, quickly clocking up views and shares. Hundreds of netizens flooded the comments section, with many calling it “our daily story” whenever it rains.

Commuters pointed out that waterlogging on major arterial roads and key underpasses routinely paralyses traffic, turning routine evening commutes into exhausting endurance tests.

Many users echoed Rangarajan's frustration regarding the complete absence of traffic police personnel at crucial bottlenecks to manually redirect vehicles or manage the gridlock when automated signals fail.

According to the Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP), due to heavy rain on Monday evening, there was heavy traffic congestion around the North Division, North-East Division, and East Division. Our staff were present at the spot and managed the traffic.