Police to hold meeting with IT/BT firms in early Feb to reduce traffic congestion in Bengaluru

BENGALURU: Bengaluru, known as the Silicon City and Garden City, has earned the dubious distinction of being the second-most traffic congested city in the world. To address this issue, the city traffic police are planning to implement new rules to regulate traffic.

The Joint Commissioner Police (Traffic) City Police Commissioner and GBA Chief Commissioner are working on a plan to reduce traffic congestion, particularly on the Outer Ring Road, which is a major hotspot.

The plan includes reducing vehicle usage in companies with over 1,500 employees, encouraging work-from-home policies one day a week, implementing a “car-free day” once a week, introducing carpooling and buspooling services, increasing bus services.

The authorities believe that if vehicle usage is reduced by 10 per cent, traffic congestion can be decreased by 40 per cent. The plan is to be discussed with IT/BT companies in a meeting scheduled for the first week of February.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Karthik Reddy told Public TV, “The vehicular population is high in the city with 2,500-3,000 vehicles being added to the roads every day. The congestion is mostly in the East division on the Outer Ring Road. Next week, we plan to hold a meeting under the leadership of the police commissioner with decision-makers of companies with more than 500 employees. Other stakeholders like the BMTC and GBA authorities will also be invited and we need to arrive at a consensus on reducing the number of vehicles of the roads”.

“Even if 10 per cent of the vehicles are reduced, congestion will ease by 30-40 per cent. We are holding meetings to draw up plans for this. There are options like carpooling, bus pooling, shuttle services, working from home one one day, car-free day on one day of the week. We will take suggestions from the others also”, he added.

The government is taking the issue seriously and is considering implementing new rules to regulate traffic in Bengaluru. The new rules may include restrictions on vehicle usage, encouraging carpooling and public transport, and promoting work-from-home policies. The authorities are hopeful that these measures will help reduce traffic congestion in Bengaluru and make the city more livable.