No city of joyride: Kolkata pips Bengaluru as India's most congested city in 2024

Among the myriad shades of the city of Bengaluru, 'also known as the Silicon Valley of India, 'one thing has always stuck out as a sore thumb - its never-ending traffic. Bengalureans are well aware of the pangs of the city's infamous traffic - uncountable private vehicles, bottlenecks, and frequent signals.

However, as per the latest traffic index released by TomTom, a reliable Dutch location technology site, Bengaluru can no longer be tagged India's most congested city. Instead, this rather unwanted title now belongs to the city of joy Kolkata, which has tipped Bengaluru to occupy the top spot.

The list of the most congested cities of India for the year 2024 released by TomTom shows Kolkata and Bengaluru taking up the top 2 spots respectively, followed by Pune, Hyderabad, and Chennai constituting the top 5, in that order.

A list of the top 10 most congested cities of India.

Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Ernakulam, Jaipur, and New Delhi are placed at the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th positions respectively.

The report further revealed that the average travel time per 10 km for the city Kolkata for 2024 was 34 minutes and 33 seconds - a 10-second increase from that of 2023. The time spent by the people of Kolkata in rush hours per year stands at 110 hours, with the city clocking a congestion level of 32 per cent.

As far as Bengaluru is concerned, the average travel time per 10 km for 2024 was 34 minutes and 10 seconds, which is a 50-second rise as compared to 2023. Whereas, the time lost in rush hours by Bengalureans per year is 117 hours, with an overall congestion level of 38 per cent in the city.

The average speed of traffic in Kolkata was recorded at 17.4 kmph, while Bengaluru's average tarffic speed was found to be 17.6 kmph.

Not just in India, Kolkata and Bengaluru were ranked extremely highly on the list of the most congested cities of the world as well, with the two cities occupying the 2nd and 3rd spots on the global list respectively.

A list of the top 10 most congested cities in the world.

The city of Barranquilla in Colombia topped the worldwide chart, with an average travel time per 10 km of 36 minutes and 6 seconds. The total time lost per year during rush hours for the city is 130 hours, with a whopping congestion level of 45 per cent. The Colombian city also clocked the lowest average speed of traffic at just 10.3 mph.