Bengaluru CEO visits Ahmedabad, praises city's road, traffic management: 'At least 10 years ahead'

Siddharth Dialani said he found the Gujarat city to be better lit than Bengaluru. (Image credit: LinkedIn, Moneycontrol file photo)

A Bengaluru-based co-founder and CEO recently drew parallels between the city and Ahmedabad, claiming that the latter is at least 10 years ahead of the country's IT capital regarding "road quality, footpaths, traffic management, traffic signals, etc."

BharatAgri's Siddharth Dialani was in Gujarat for a visit recently and he listed out pointers on X to support his stance.

"Here, every traffic signal has a working timer with bright lights. This alone reduces driver anxiety, and makes them stop with patience. Can't believe that such a basic thing is missing in almost all signals of Bangalore," he said. "Bangalore is so dusty that signal lights are not even visible."

Dialani also praised the wide roads in Ahmedabad which have prominent lane markings. "It's like markings were done just yesterday. Looking at Bangalore, I used to believe that Indian road quality is going down. After looking at Ahmedabad, I realised that It's not India, it's just Bangalore!" he said, adding that he could not find any potholes on the roads.

The entrepreneur also found the city to be better-lit than Bengaluru. He said Ahmedabad looks "bright and happening" at night which can directly affect the mood of its people. "People are generally happy and smiling," Dialani said, "Whereas, Bangalore is dark! Forget bright happening lights, even basic street lights don't work. Is that why people are generally sad and angry in Bangalore?"

His post on X garnered a lot of attention with close to 6 lakh views, more than 8,000 likes, and around 800 retweets. It also triggered a discussion on social media.

"I am in Ahmedabad after 6 years and currently in awe. Traffic is moving so well that you don’t see jams at all. The city has built bridges on most cross roads where there was congestion! I see AMC people all around the city keeping an eye on people for illegal parking!" commented X user Anang Dave (@anang_dave).

Another user kushal bethur (@kush5005) wrote, "No offense! Bengaluru is dark because we welcomed everyone with open hearts and allowed you guys to set up many startups and to make you guys comfortable, allowed to set up pubs and bars and it got crowded. I'm happy you guys are liking other places. Let population get distributed to different parts of the country."

Recently, an international agency ranked Bengaluru as the third most traffic-congested city in the world and the second in India. In TomTom Traffic Index 2024, Kolkata had the second spot while Colombia's Barranquilla topped it.