3 litres for 1.5km drive: Jam fuels frustration of Bengaluru techies on Outer Ring Road; every day feels like a test of patience, say commuters | Bengaluru News
BENGALURU: Imagine burning 3 litres of petrol just to travel 1.5 kilometres. That’s the grim reality for techies navigating the choked stretch near Ecospace on Bellandur’s Sarjapur Road-Outer Ring Road (ORR) corridor. Frustrated commuters Tuesday took to social media, sharing dashboard screenshots that revealed shocking levels of fuel consumption and barely moving traffic.In one case, a commuter reported using 3.2 litres of fuel to cover just 3.3km in 45 minutes. Another said his car guzzled 3 litres over a 1.5km crawl that took 22 minutes. Typically, cars offer mileage between 8 and 15 kmpl, but in these gridlocked conditions, it efficiency nosedived to as low as 3-6 kmpl as helpless techies waited for hours with the engine on to keep the air-conditioning running.“This is outrageous,” posted Akshay, a software engineer, on X. “Sarjapur Road traffic is getting out of hand! Every day feels like a test of patience — jam-packed, inch-by-inch movement. When will we see a real solution to this chaos?” Another commuter, Krishna B, posted: “My car, a Honda Civic, shows I burned nearly 3 litres of fuel just to move 2.1km. It took me close to 50 minutes. That’s almost Rs 300 worth of petrol gone, and I didn’t even leave my neighbourhood!” Shanaya R, who works in a fintech company near Ecospace and drives an MG Hector, told TOI: “This is becoming unbearable. On Monday, my fuel consumption was 2.8 litres for just under 2km. I was idling more than moving. The stress of sitting through this every day is worse than workload.”
But why did roads in the tech corridor witness crawling traffic? Sources pointed to the new traffic diversions rolled out near Kadubeesanahalli junction on ORR, the pathetic condition of service roads, heavy inflow of private vehicles into tech parks, and reshuffle of the traffic brass as joint commissioner (traffic) MN Anucheth was moved out.Where’s the infra?Nithin Mallikarjun, a frequent commuter and techie, said: “We need more infrastructure — extra flyovers, access ramps and underground routes. At the same time, BMTC should improve frequency and companies must bring back bus services.” Ravi Kumar, a resident of Kasavanahalli, added: “In the time it takes to cross 2.5km, I could’ve driven to Electronics City and back under normal conditions. The car is literally burning petrol while standing still. It’s bad for the wallet, bad for the environment, and even worse for our mental health.”Vishnu Prasad, a member of Save Bellandur Forum, blamed the issue on poor planning. “The problem is straightforward — people can’t even step out of their homes. In Haralur, Kasavanahalli, and Doddakannelli, roads are narrow. Apartments are sprouting up everywhere, but there’s no investment in public transport. We’ve asked for mini-buses many times, but nothing has happened. The Metro may arrive by 2031, but what till then? Tech parks in the area are equally responsible as they are allowing constructions without accounting for traffic flow.“
