Anjaaan

The traffic scene in Bengaluru is getting more distressing every passing day. Even Sundays, which used to be relatively easier, is becoming as nightmarish as the weekdays. Everyday, we are adding thousands of new private vehicles onto the roads which is only adding to the problem. Even running errands from neighbourhood stores takes so much time. The city roads, including the small lanes in residential areas, are way beyond its carrying capacity, and there is no space to make more roads. Anyway, more roads mean more private vehicles. Clearly, we are not doing enough to reduce the number of private vehicles on road and increase the public transport options. BMTC is crowded. Metro, during peak hours, is so packed that you feel suffocated. The high charging Uber Ola taxis are not reliable and take forever to even turn up at your location. Autorickshaws simply cancel rides on you. Our footpaths are not pedestrian friendly, and in most places are encroached by hawkers. The condition of the roads across the city is pathetic, with potholes and unscientific humps. BBMP and its officials turn a blind eye to all the commercial developments in residential areas, further adding to the traffic density. In short, the quality of life is getting worse everyday. Successive governments in the State, across parties, have failed to provide our wonderful city the vision and leadership that it deserves. Something drastic has to be done to address this. And it needs to be done NOW, with warlike urgency. We need to experiment with out-of-the-box solutions like the odd-even model or the Singapore model of limiting the number of cars or anything radical that works in the short term. In the long term, we need to double down on our investments and urgency on public transportation and drastically reduce private vehicles. Each person owing a private vehicle model will simply not work for a densely populated country like ours. The city is crying out for help. Our people, especially the middle class, needs us to act to improve their quality of life. We are spending more time in mind numbing traffic than with our family and loved ones. I urge the Hon. DCM @DKShivakumar who is also the Bengaluru Incharge Minister to call for an urgent meeting with the elected representatives and traffic management experts and discuss solutions that we can unanimously push forward. I will continue to follow this up with the powers that be till we find a solution for this. SINCERELY hope, we can keep party politics aside and help our city.