Bengaluru traffic: Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath asks for a solution from top cop; he says the only way is THIS

Bengaluru's Joint Commissioner of Police, Traffic, MN Anucheth, has said the only way the city can reduce its traffic problems is by introducing better modes and facilities of public transport.

Speaking at Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath's WTF Is podcast, which was released on Monday, Anucheth noted the lack of public transport facilities in Bengaluru compared to other metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata. Kamath had asked him about a solution to Bengaluru's traffic issues, which have earned it a bad reputation.

“Historically, Bangalore has this problem of a lack of public transport facilities. The only public transport facilities before the metro came in were the BMTC buses. Unlike other cities, like Kolkata, you have the trams, in Delhi, you have the metro, in Mumbai, you have the Mumbai local, which is not the case here,” he said.

Citing the example of the Baiyyappanahalli Line metro getting connected to the Whitefield Line, the IPS officer said that the traffic on the route automatically reduced by 17 per cent.

“Just to give an example, when the Baiyyappanahalli Line got connected to the Whitefield Line, our traffic automatically reduced by 17 per cent. That just shows how interlinked this thing is or how important public transport is,” he said.

“So the long-term solution to Bengaluru's problems is public transport. Whether it's K-Ride, suburban trains, or a metro – whatever it is. I think that's the way to go forward,” Anucheth added.

Bengaluru top cop hopeful of change

While the implementation of public transport infrastructure has taken some time, a change will be visible when things are all set, Anucheth noted.

“The implementation has taken some time, but when it comes in, you will definitely see a change.”

“For example, the Outer Ring Road line opens for metro, not only will the metro be available, but also the carriage space where the metro work is going on, which has been reduced, will not be there. You'd get the full 10 lanes available to you,” he added.

The Joint Police Commissioner also suggested some short-term solutions to combat Bengaluru traffic.

“In the short term, measures like implementation of AI-based signals, technology implementation (will work),” he said.

Why does Bengaluru have traffic issues?

Anucheth during the WTF Is podcast noted that there has been an explosive growth in Bengaluru's population after 2000 and the infrastructure has not grown accordingly.

“The thing with Bengaluru 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,” he said.

The top cop revealed that the city has the highest number of vehicles per thousand population.

“Bengaluru has the highest number of vehicles per 1,000 at about 872. We have 1.5 crore population with 1.23 crore vehicle population. With the kind of explosive growth, so the compounded annual growth rate of vehicles is 8 per cent We doubled in between 2013 and 2023,” he noted.

Bengaluru has one of the worst traffic in the world, with the city coming at the third rank in the latest TomTom Traffic Index. As per the index, it takes an average of 34 minutes and 10 seconds to cover a distance of 10 kilometres in the city.