Bengaluru

India

great 2

Jayaram

Electronics City

cycling infrastructure

high-speed rail

As’s traffic gets worse and infrastructure continues to fail, it seems like citizens are giving up the ‘fight’. Many of them are now relocating to places closer to their workplace just to reduce the commute time, even if it means having to live separately from their families or giving up their own house on rent and moving into a rented accommodation elsewhere.Ankit Potla, who has a one-and-a-half-year-old infant, moved to Jigani, Bommasandra Link Road.He says: “My wife got a job in Biocon and it used to take her four to five hours every day to travel to work and back. As our baby was very small at the time, I thought of moving closer to her workplace a year ago. Now, her workplace is just 2-3 km away from home.”The new arrangement, however, has dramatically increased Ankit’s commute time.“It takes me around five hours every day to travel to my office in Hebbal and back home. But as long as my wife and the baby are comfortable, I don’t mind travelling.” He goes to the nearest railway station at Chandapura on his two-wheeler, parks his vehicle and takes a suburban train till cantonment and then a bus to Hebbal to reach his office.They say time is money. And Deepak Agarwal gets it. He doesn’t regret renting out his own house and moving into a rented accommodation in Koramangala to save time. He says: “I stayed in Whitefield near Graphitetill 2017. We had purchased a new home then but decided to rent it out as it was very far from our workplace. In August 2017, I relocated to Koramangala as my workplace is very close to Dairy Circle. I used to start by 7 am from my home to reach my office after travelling for 2-2.5 hours every day. My wife works in Domlur, so Koramangala serves as a centre for both of us now and we travel together. Now even during the peak hours, we take the same amount of time but while travelling from Whitefield during peak hours, the time used to double. We somehow managed on the same route for 1.5 years before taking the final call. At present, we only spend 10-15 minutes to get to work.”Gautam K Rangan moved to India five years ago and had no idea how bad the traffic could get in Bengaluru. Having had a fair share of that experience now, he and his wife now look for jobs only in and around the Whitefield area. “I really liked Malleswaram so we moved there but then I got a job in Whitefield and realised it was not a good idea. It used to take 2-3 hours one way. Starting at 7 am every day, I would reach office at 9.15 am. In the evening, it would take even longer. It started affecting my lifestyle and eating and sleeping habits. I used to travel by buses as I didn’t like driving much.Eventually, I got tired of the commute and started my own education-based startup. My wife now works in ITPL and does not want to go beyond Whitefield for work. I take the suburban trains now and reach within 20-30 minutes.”While relocation is possible for some, for others, it may not be a feasible option. Lokesh Venkatachalapathy, for instance, changed his morning shift to night shift to skip the daytime madness on the roads.Venkatachalapathy, a financial analyst, stays in Peenya. “I used to travel to ITPL for work until a few years ago. I changed my work location and shift too.I now work in Hebbal in the night shift as there is lesser traffic at night, no jams and no pollution. Earlier every day, I used to spend 2-2.5 hours on one side to commute to work. Now it only takes around an hour to travel to work and back at night,” he said.Shamally Chopra, who works at RMZ Ecoworld, will be moving to Bellandur in two weeks to cut down the daily travel time for her husband and herself. She says: “I am moving from Whitefield to right across RMZ Ecoworld in Adarsh Palm Retreat villas, Bellandur. Currently, it takes me two hours every day to travel to work and come back whereas my husband, who works at Bagmane Techpark, spends 90 minutes travelling every day. Our travel time will reduce considerably but our move will also add 15 minutes more to the travel time of my children to school. So we have traded for 15 minutes instead of two hours every day.”For Sreevathsa, the price of escaping the city’s traffic was much higher. He relocated to Chandapura a month-and-a-half ago from Tumkur Road and had to split from his family to escape the traffic. He says: “Once I got a job in, I realised I was spending around 4 hours every day in the traffic. So I decided to relocate closer to my workplace with my wife. But in the process, I had to split from my parents. Now, I visit them only on weekends. Since my brother lives with them, I don’t have to worry much about them.”Ashish Verma, Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, IISc, says: “It is a good thing if people are relocating to be closer to their workplaces. It was much needed for Bengaluru, be it through policy implementation, personal choices or behavioural changes. This will potentially reduce the vehicular traffic on roads and air pollution. If the distance is short, people will also opt for walking or cycling. But it works both ways. The government needs to improve walking andin the city so that people are encouraged to walk or cycle to work. An infrastructural and policy push from the government’s side is needed because even if people relocate, they will use their two wheelers or cars to travel to short distances if walking or cycling tracks are not available. They must ensure shorter trips are not made through motorised personal vehicles.”Urban expert Naresh Narasimhan said transportation modes such as Metro, suburban andneed to be strengthened. The government should also take steps to develop infrastructure in the city. Bengaluru South is developing well and North has also started developing. The number of vehicle registration in the city has also come down.