Why Bengaluru's tech corridor, Outer Ring Road, needs an urgent fix

Traffic congestion at Ecospace near Bellandur on Outer Ring Road. Picture credit: Twitter/@KBSharm63460260

As the monsoon approaches, commuters traveling on Bengaluru's Outer Ring Road (ORR), especially techies, are an anxious lot.

Constructed in phases over six years from 1996 to 2002, the 60-km ORR that encircles a large chunk of the city was intended to link major highways, facilitate faster travel, and alleviate congestion in Bengaluru.

The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) built the ORR to redirect heavy vehicles including trucks away from the inner city and ease traffic in the city centre. However, there has been a proliferation of tech parks and residential complexes on both sides of the ORR.

The section in southeast Bengaluru, adjacent to IT offices in Whitefield and Sarjapur Road, has come to be known as the tech corridor. However, the poor design of the ORR, coupled with the lack of parallel roads, means that a single truck breakdown, fallen tree, or waterlogging in a small section can bring the entire tech corridor to a standstill.

Areas along the ORR such as Marthahalli , Bellandur, Central Silk Board, KR Puram, Hebbal, and Goraguntepalya suffer from severe traffic congestion.

Ritesh Banglani, an angel investor, highlighted the design issues of the ORR at Marathahalli junction in a recent Twitter thread.

“When they built the junction with the area's major artery, HAL Airport Road, they left a single lane to enter and exit the Ring Road from any direction. That meant traffic turning from both directions merged into the same single lane,” he posted. “Pretty much from the day it was completed, traffic started piling up. As the suburb got built up, more people needed to commute between the 'IT Corridor' and the city, in both directions. The service roads became bottlenecks and the Marathalli Jam was born.”

Poor planning

Urban mobility expert RK Misra criticised the designing process, stating that the Marathahalli junction should have been designed like the Domlur flyover, with a right-turn leaf going over the road and merging onto the crossroad.

He said that the congestion was not limited to Marathahalli and was the result of the large number of companies that came up along the ORR and the number of vehicles on the road, with no alternative parallel roads. Misra said the government should have acquired more land on both sides of the ORR, similar to what was done in Noida, and planned infrastructure accordingly.

"But the nexus between builders and politicians prevented this from happening as they joined forces to acquire land and construct mega tech parks and apartments without considering the need for road or drain infrastructure, parks, or other civic amenities,” Misra alleged. “This alliance between politicians and builders, driven by their vested interests in the ORR and IT growth, can be seen as a disregard for the welfare of the public.”

Clement Jayakumar, secretary of the Mahadevapura MLA's task force, said: "A cloverleaf interchange flyover should have been implemented at the intersection of Marathahalli when the ORR was designed and developed 25 years ago.”. He said it is now too late for land acquisition and called for alternative solutions.

No street grids

“The absence of street grids on the ORR, unlike in places like Jayanagar in south Bengaluru, causes congestion on the ORR," said civic evangelist V Ravichandar. Interconnecting roads and streets in a grid-like pattern will enable motorists to bypass congested areas and select alternate routes.

He suggested that tech parks and other establishments should allow thoroughfares through their campuses to divert traffic.

"While the Metro on the ORR is seen as a long-term solution, immediate short-term measures are needed to address the current congestion problems," he said.

MN Sreehari, former advisor to the Karnataka government for traffic, said the average speed along the ORR during evening peak hours has dropped to 9 kmph. He attributed this congestion to the concentration of companies in Bengaluru's east, resulting in crowded roads connecting the workplaces and residences. He added that this problem was not experienced in the west, south, or north of Bengaluru.

Krishna Kumar Gowda, general manager of the Outer Ring Road Companies’ Association (ORRCA), stressed the importance of the traffic police deploying sufficient towing vehicles to promptly clear vehicle breakdowns. He further advocated enhancements such as the widening of arterial roads and the provision of well-maintained pavements and adequate bus shelters.

Metro work shrinks road-width

The ongoing Metro construction work has further compounded congestion issues on the ORR. The construction has reduced the road width, with 4.5 meters on both sides taken up by Metro work, leading to increased traffic congestion on the ORR. Service roads on ORR is also in a poor condition.

In 2019, the state government rolled out the bus priority lane, a dedicated bus corridor on the 17 km stretch between Central Silk Board and KR Puram at a cost of Rs 14.3 crore. But the bollards segregating the bus lane were uprooted after the metro work began.

Venkat Boddeti, a regular user of the road, suggested that the government should consider allowing ORR companies, especially those from Marathahalli to Ecospace to implement work-from-home arrangements until the metro work is completed.

"There is a need for alternative parallel roads. Further, the condition of the ORR service road near the Embassy village is also in bad shape," he said.

Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation managing director Anjum Parwez told Moneycontrol: "We have already removed barricades in certain sections of ORR where the U-girder work has been completed, thereby restoring the road for regular use. While the official deadline for the completion of ORR Metro (Central Silk Board-KR Puram) is 2025, our current plan is to finish the project by December 2024. However, the deadline for the KR Puram-Kempegowda International Airport stretch is December 2025."

Poorly designed hanging bridge at KR Puram

Similarly, a poorly designed hanging bridge at KR Puram junction, where vehicles from Hebbal, Old Madras Road, ITPL and ORR converge, has become a major pain point for commuters. The bridge spans 230 meters and was built over the Krishnarajapuram railway station.

However, one of the major issues is the lack of space beneath the bridge for taking a U-turn. Additionally, there is no provision for a left turn from the Hoskote side towards Marathahalli, further causing congestion at the junction.

PRR, STRR on slow track

The Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) and the Satellite Towns Ring Road (STRR) – two major road projects aimed at easing traffic congestion on ORR – are progressing slowly.

The STRR, a 280.8 km access-controlled expressway connecting Dobbasapete, Doddaballapura, Devanahalli, Sulibele, Hoskote, Sarjapura, Attibele, Anekal, Tattekere, Kanakapura, Ramanagara and Magadi, has a deadline of 2025.  STRR work has commenced, however, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which is executing the project, is unlikely to meet the deadline.

The 74-km PRR, proposed by BDA in 2007 to address congestion on the outskirts of the city, is supposed to be an eight-lane access-controlled expressway linking Tumakuru Road and Hosur Road via Hesaraghatta Road, Doddaballapur Road, Ballari Road, Hennur Road, Old Madras Road, Hoskote Road and Sarjapur. However, the project is yet to see the light of the day.

Tech nerve centre

ORR serves as the nerve centre for the city's technology sector. But it has other problems, too. Areas such as Bellandur, Marathahalli, and Sarjapur Road were affected by flooding during heavy rains. The ORRCA highlighted a revenue loss of Rs 225 crore due to heavy rains and flooding on ORR on August 30, 2022.

According to ORRCA, IT firms located on the ORR contribute $22 billion, or 32 percent, of Bengaluru’s total IT revenue. Associations such as NASSCOM have asked for the 17-km ORR stretch from Central Silk Board to KR Puram to be declared a separate municipal zone. Corporates in Real Estate (CiRE) has also urged the government to entrust management of the 30-km ORR stretch from Hebbal to Central Silk Board to them.