‘Hoping to reach by lunch. An hour for 4 km’: Bengaluru’s Sarjapur Road traffic turns daily commute into a nightmare

Bengaluru's notorious traffic congestion continues to worsen, with commuters spending hours covering short distances, especially along Sarjapur Road. On Tuesday, a commuter reported that it took him an hour to travel just 4 kilometers on this heavily congested stretch, which has been plagued by numerous civic issues in East Bengaluru.

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Expressing frustration on the community X handle, 'Citizens Movements East,' the commuter wrote, "Stuck in traffic #gridlock on Sarjapur Road. 1 hour for just 4 km, with 13 km more to go! Hoping to reach by lunchtime. When the system fails, this is the result. When CM @siddaramaiah and DyCM @DKShivakumar focus only on doubling their paychecks, this is what happens."

Eventually reaching his destination by noon, he updated his post, stating that the 14-kilometer journey along Sarjapur Road and Outer Ring Road (ORR) took him a grueling two hours.

The incident has reignited complaints from commuters about the poor state of the roads and the severe traffic congestion in the area. Many residents urged authorities to intervene and improve the infrastructure. One user pointed out, "Iblur Junction now sees worse traffic than Silk Board. The population along Sarjapur Road, from Dommasandra to Iblur, has surged, and it’s only expected to grow. Multiple U-turns further worsen the congestion. There's practically no suburban rail service, and Metro 3A is at least a decade away."

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Another commuter, echoing similar concerns, wrote, "It took me 1 hour 20 minutes to cover just 5 km. 'Brand Bengaluru' at its finest! A huge salute to our tunnel/skydeck minister, Shri @DKShivakumar. Special appreciation to @blrcitytraffic for ZERO management skills during peak hours, ZERO planning, and ZERO staff deployment at critical junctions. Not to forget, a big thanks to @BBMPCOMM for the pathetic road infrastructure."

A frequent traveler on this stretch noted a recurring issue near Bellandur, opposite EcoSpace Junction. "I use this route three times a week and have observed that traffic is at its worst around this point. Beyond that, the road is relatively clear. More efforts should be focused here to prevent bottlenecks stretching back to HSR Layout."

With traffic congestion worsening, residents are urging civic authorities to take immediate action and implement long-term solutions to ease mobility in one of Bengaluru’s most rapidly developing areas.

Google Trends

According to Google Trends, the search term "Bengaluru" was trending on Tuesday, gaining momentum on the same day. Most searches came from Karnataka, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Goa, and Puducherry. Related queries included topics such as a YouTuber clearing traffic for an ambulance in Bengaluru, city streets foaming after rain, Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath, Prasanna Sankar, and Dhawan Nilaya Bengaluru, which saw a significant surge in interest.