Bengaluru: New measures adopted to tackle ORR traffic congestion
Traffic congestion in Bengaluru has become a major issue for locals. In an attempt to curb the congestion during the peak hours on the city's Outer Ring Road (ORR) stretch, members of the Outer Ring Road Companies Association (ORRCA) met Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) MN Anucheth on Saturday. A few key measures were finalized after the meeting to ease the traffic woes of commuters in Bengaluru!
Ban on heavy vehicles and shared transport
Announcing the new curbs, the ORRCA took to X (formerly Twitter) and revealed that heavy vehicular traffic will be banned between 7:00am and 10:00pm on the ORR starting next week. Furthermore, traffic police will consult with the big tech park developers on the ORR to review the feasibility of enabling shared transport for each major tech park. This will allegedly increase the occupancy of vehicles and reduce the fleet size used for employees' commutation.
Staggered work time and bus lane reintroduction
The ORRCA also revealed that an advisory will soon be sent to companies on the ORR to stagger their work time to reduce heavy traffic flow during standard peak hours. Moreover, the bus lane on the ORR will be reintroduced to keep the buses of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) operating without hindering other vehicles on the road.
You can check out ORRCA's post here
Bengaluru witnessed record ORR jam on Wednesday
The measures were brought about in the aftermath of the record traffic jam on the ORR on Wednesday. Commuters in Bengaluru faced unprecedented traffic woes as the city's ORR, the 60-kilometer-long stretch adjoining the booming tech corridor, witnessed a record traffic jam that lasted for over four hours. While the ORR usually sees 1.5-2 lakh vehicles on regular Wednesdays, the vehicle count on the stretch reached around 3.6 lakh that day.
City police's earlier measures to combat jams
Earlier in August, the Bengaluru Police had proposed several plans to companies in the city's tech corridor to reduce traffic. These measures included staggered working hours, carpooling, and separate buses for the 10 lakh employees working at the IT companies. This initiative is modeled after one taken in Hyderabad, which used similar measures to address traffic congestion.
