On the eve of September 27, scattered rainfall shrouded Bengaluru's nippy weather as the city geared up for one of the longest traffic snarls in the IT hub of India.
At 6 PM, Sruthi Shushanti stepped out of her office in south-east Bengaluru's Bellandur unaware of the fact that it would take her four-and-a-half hours to travel 10 km to her apartment in Koramangala.
Traffic on the Outer Ring Road — which is flanked by IT parks and tech companies on both sides — was stalled for hours.
In fact, Sushanti says, her 30-minute pizza delivery reached her even before her car had moved three km through the traffic. But, she also says, "Normally, in a 'good' traffic condition it takes me more than 70 minutes to travel to work. On usual days, I finish listening to self-help podcasts, or mostly, I download online apartment listing apps while commuting."
It's been almost nine months since Shushanti has been looking for an apartment rental close to her office in Bellandur.
Her office, which is also near the eastern IT corridor of Whitefield and Sarjapur, is one of the prime locations in Bengaluru commanding sky-high rentals. Local brokers say that a 2BHK in the area starts at Rs 60,000-70,000 per month, while 1 BHKs are hardly available.
Today, Sushanti shells out close to Rs 16,000 every month or Rs 2 lakh every year in commute since her company resumed work from office early last year. And so often, when Sushanti is on her way to work, she downloads online real estate listing apps, hoping to find an apartment within her budget.
"I stay in a 2BHK apartment paying Rs 30,000 per month. But the apartments near my office are commanding rentals of more than Rs 60,000. More importantly, the security deposits of between Rs 4-6 lakh are unaffordable," she added.
Guys it's not a photo, it's a video. #bangaloretraffic pic.twitter.com/UAH9aI4ktl— 에자ᄉ (@ejbekal) September 27, 2023
While the September 29 traffic snarl was due to several reasons including the long weekend ahead, more vehicles on the road and incessant rainfall — experts say heavy congestion on ORR is majorly an infrastructural failure resulting from the inefficient use of land and poor transport planning.
Sandeep Anirudhan, convenor of Bengaluru Agenda for Mobility, said the city still lacks a master plan that demarcates the land use thus enabling better transport planning.
"In the early 1990s, when Outer Ring Road (ORR) was designed, the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) was included in the planning along with the metro network. However, BRTS was dropped over the years. Today, proper implementation of BRTS, metro and suburban rail can reduce 50 percent congestion on ORR and even in other bottlenecks," he added.
On the other hand, Akanksha Tripathi (name changed), has already started applying for a new job — and has one interview lined up next week — close to her apartment to avoid spending four hours in commute to her workplace in Bellandur. "I never even wanted to check for apartments in Bellandur amid the real estate frenzy in the city," she added.
#bangaloretrafficImpact on real estateEven google map knows you will reach faster on foot
This happens only in Bangalore pic.twitter.com/4QC1erXdUb
— Adarsh (@AdarshMohit) September 27, 2023
Sushanti said, over the past months, she found apartment rentals decreasing by at least 10-20 percent in areas close to extremely congested bottlenecks in the city.
Experts say bottlenecks like Silk Board have a major traffic hurdle and people don't want to be anywhere close to it. Standalone property prices have dipped by about 10-15 percent and are still dropping compared to the by-lanes away from traffic, said Balaji Badrinath, a realtor at US-based Coldwell Banker.
Areas close to congested bottlenecks currently command lower rentals compared to areas away from them. The difference can be anywhere between 10 percent to as high as 50 percent, Sunil Singh, Director of Realty Corps added.
"For example, areas like Ulsoor — next to MG Road — and Silk Board are not popular among most techies in Bengaluru due to the severe congestion these places face. Thus, rentals in these areas have dropped over time, even amid high demand," he added.
The real estate sector in Bengaluru is in a frenzy with rentals increasing by 40 percent in prime locations due to the severe mismatch in demand and supply. Landlords in Bengaluru are riding a boom as tenants returning to the city to work in offices struggle to find apartments.
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