Day after bandh, Bengaluru hit by massive traffic jam

In one of the most frustrating days for road users in recent memory, many parts of Bengaluru, the Outer Ring Road (ORR) in particular, witnessed a halt on Wednesday as traffic jams stretched several kilometres.

And true to Bengaluru's reputation as the second-most congested city in the world, thousands of commuters took five hours or more to cover distances as little as 20 km.

In perhaps the most defining moment of the day, South African comedian Trevor Noah show in the city had to be cancelled due to poor acoustics after hundreds of fans reached the venue several hours late.

Police listed five reasons for the unusually high traffic flow. This included the long weekend that prompted outbound travellers to scoot out of the city in personal vehicles. Waterlogging on potholed roads and vehicle breakdowns compounded the problem.

Traffic began to crawl in the morning itself as office-goers returned to work after staying at home during Tuesday's bandh. But the situation hadn't gotten out of hand.

The full scale of the gridlock began to emerge only around 3 pm as office-goers and outbound travellers flocked to the ORR and other streets.

As per conservative estimates, at least 6 lakh vehicles hit the ORR and the surrounding streets, double the 3.3 lakh usually seen on a Wednesday, according to Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) M N Anucheth.

By 5 pm, the ORR stretch from Marathahalli to Silk Board Junction was literally chock-a-block. Its effects soon spilt over to other arterial roads, including Sarjapur Road, Old Madras Road, Ballari Road, Tumakuru Road and Mysuru Road.

For the next two hours, vehicle users were literally stranded in bumper-to-bumper traffic. A spell of rainfall around 4 pm contributed to the congestion, police said.

"I experienced one of the worst days of my life in Blr traffic. Left Eco World at 3.45 pm and reached Kathriguppe at 9.15 pm. Traffic horror in Bengaluru (sic)," a Twitter user wrote.

Another user reported how an ambulance was stuck in traffic at one place for more than 20 minutes. She said she took four hours to cover 15 km.

A Whitefield resident tried to take his son to a Noah show but got there only after five hours. "In the end, the show was cancelled due to poor acoustics just as we got there nearly two hours late," the resident said.

Senior traffic police officers had to rush to the spot to monitor the situation.

Shiva Prakash Devaraju, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic, South), said the situation was so bad at Iblur that there was a three-kilometre-long jam on either side of the ORR (towards HSR Layout and Whitefield).