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Is There A Fix For Bengaluru’s Traffic? Nikhil Kamath Asks The City’s Top Cops; Here's What They Said
ABP Live Business | May 13, 2025 4:11 PM CST

Nikhil Kamath often finds that any mention of his city quickly turns into a discussion about its notorious traffic. Frustrated by this recurring theme, the Zerodha co-founder decided to tackle the issue head-on in a recent episode of his WTF podcast. He invited two key figures from the city’s law enforcement, Police Commissioner B Dayananda and Traffic Police Commissioner M.N. Anucheth, to explore whether Bengaluru’s traffic crisis has a real solution.

During the conversation, Kamath said, “I'm from Bangalore, as Bangalorean as anybody can be. Wherever I go and tell good things about Bangalore, people tell me, 'traffic, traffic, traffic. What is the problem? What is the solution? Is there a solution?”

Commissioner Anucheth explained that the core of the problem lies in the city’s rapid and unplanned expansion between 2013 and 2023, a period of intense urban growth. Unlike other metros, Bengaluru lacked a solid foundation in public transportation, having only recently begun to develop systems like the metro. The absence of alternatives such as trams and local trains, he said, has only compounded congestion as the population surged.

"I think the amount of criticism we get is totally disproportionate to the problem at hand. I think every major metropolitan city across the world faces the issue of traffic," Anucheth said. "Because, let's face it, cities are magnets or attractive places for employment. It attracts a lot of people. And year on year, a city grows. The thing with Bangalore has been that post-2000, after the IT boom, there has been a significant explosive growth. And the infrastructure has not commensurately grown with the growth of vehicles or the human population. Now, Bangalore has the highest number of vehicles per 1,000. It's 872 per 1,000 population."

Higher Vehicle Density

The Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) highlighted that Bengaluru has a significantly higher vehicle density per 1,000 residents than cities like Mumbai or Delhi. “Hyderabad is comparable. It's at about 750. But Bangalore is very high. So, we have 1.5 crore population with 1.23 crore vehicle population. So, with the kind of explosive growth... So the compounded annual growth rate of vehicles is 8 per cent, right? We doubled between 2013 and 2023. It was 56 lakh, it became 1.12 crore. So, if you see that kind of growth rate, infrastructure will never be enough,” he added. 

Public Transport

According to Traffic Commissioner M.N. Anucheth, improving public transportation is the key to addressing the city's traffic challenges. He noted that, unlike other major metros like Kolkata with trams, Delhi with its metro system, and Mumbai with its network of local trains, Bengaluru relied almost entirely on BMTC buses for decades.

“The long-term solution to Bangalore's problems is public transport, whether it's K-RIDE suburban trains, or it is metro, increasing the fleet... I think that's the way to go forward. And that's where it is. It is just that the implementation has taken some time,” he noted.

To illustrate his point, Anucheth cited the completion of the Baiyappanahalli–Whitefield metro line, which led to a 17 per cent drop in peak-hour traffic. He also mentioned the anticipated benefits of the upcoming Outer Ring Road metro line. Once completed, not only will it provide a new transit option, but it will also free up the road space currently occupied by ongoing construction. With the metro operational and the full 10-lane road available again, we should see a noticeable improvement in traffic flow, he said.

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