Bengaluru's traffic problem overstated because of bad PR: Nikhil Kamath

Bengaluru is getting a disproportionate rap for its traffic because of bad PR, said celebrity entrepreneur and co-founder of Zerodha, Nikhil Kamath, in the latest episode of his podcast 'WTF is'  Kamath had a freewheeling chat with B Dayananda, Commissioner of Police (CP), and M N Anucheth, Joint Commissioner of Police (JCP), Traffic, in his podcast, which is available on Spotify.

The video of the interaction is also posted on Kamath's official YouTube page.

Noting that whenever he says anything good about Bengaluru, he is always confronted with traffic, traffic, traffic, Kamath asked the JCP if there is a solution to the traffic problem in Bengaluru.

"I also think that the problem is overstated because I don't know, bad PR? Maybe we have not done a good job of telling our story," said Kamath.

Anucheth agreed that the amount of criticism Bengaluru is getting is disproportionate to the problem at hand.

"I think every major metropolitan city across the world faces the issue of traffic because, let's face it, cities are magnets for employment. The thing with Bengaluru has been that post-2000, after the IT boom, there has been explosive growth, and the infrastructure has not commensurately grown with the growth of vehicles or the population," added Anucheth.

According to him, Bengaluru has the highest number of vehicles per 1,000 people in India.

"It's 872 per 1,000 population. So, we have a 1.5 crore population with 1.23 crore vehicles. We also doubled between 2013 and 2023 in terms of vehicle growth ratein 2013, it was 56 lakh, and in 2023, it was 1.12 crore. With that kind of growth rate, infrastructure will never be enough," said Anucheth.

He also pointed out that historically, Bengaluru lacked public transport facilities.

"The only public transport facilities before the Metro came were BMTC busesunlike other cities like Kolkata, which had trams, or Mumbai, which has the Mumbai local," said Anucheth.

He said things will improve a lot once the ongoing public infrastructure projects are completed.

"The long-term solution to Bengaluru's problems is public transport, whether it's KRIDE suburban trains or the Metro increasing its fleet. I think that's the way forward," said the JCP Traffic.

He also agreed that implementation is taking more time than planned.

"But when it falls into place, you will see a change. For example, when the Outer Ring Road line opens for the Metro, not only will the Metro be available, but also the carriage space, which is reduced because of the ongoing Metro work, will open up. I mean, Bengaluru will get the entire 10-lane road to drive on," said Anucheth.

He said until then, the city will have to make do with short-term measures like the implementation of AI-based signal technology, junction redesign, and some traffic engineering, which is being done on a day-to-day basis.