Once celebrated as the powerhouse behind India's digital revolution, Bengaluru now grapples with the severe consequences of its own rapid expansion. The city that hosts some of the world's largest technology companies faces a perfect storm of infrastructure challenges that threaten its productivity and global reputation.
The Daily Commute Nightmare
Entrepreneur RK Misra, who co-founded a multimillion-dollar startup, describes the brutal reality facing Bengaluru's workforce. His 16-kilometre commute often stretches to two exhausting hours, making it impossible to schedule morning meetings. The situation is pretty bad. And it hurts by not being able to plan your day, he told AFP, highlighting how the congestion destroys work-life balance for millions.
According to the 2024 TomTom Traffic Index, Bengaluru recorded the world's third-slowest traffic speeds, performing worse than global counterparts like London and San Francisco. BS Prahallad, technical director of government-backed Bengaluru Smart Infrastructure Limited, confirmed the severity, noting that an average resident takes 90–100 minutes to travel just 16km.
Corporate Exodus Begins
The distress is particularly acute along the city's flagship Outer Ring Road corridor, a 20-kilometre stretch housing Fortune 500 companies and employing over a million professionals. Despite its global reputation, this critical business district battles pothole-ridden roads, seasonal flooding, and chronic summer water shortages.
The deteriorating conditions have prompted some companies to reconsider their presence. In September, BlackBuck CEO Rajesh Yabaji announced his firm's departure from the ORR belt after average commute times for employees shot up to 1.5+ hours one way. He criticized the roads as being full of potholes and dust, coupled with lowest intent to get them rectified.
Pharma pioneer Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw echoed these concerns publicly, questioning why the roads remain in such poor condition and why garbage accumulation persists. Doesn't the government want to support investment? she demanded on social media.
Government Response and Historical Context
Deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar acknowledged the crisis, revealing that more than 10,000+ potholes had been identified across the city, with half already repaired. He urged citizens to build Bengaluru up together, emphasizing that the world views India through the lens of its technology capital.
The state government has announced a London-style governance overhaul, splitting the municipal corporation into five bodies under a new Greater Bengaluru Authority to streamline urban planning and service delivery.
Ecologist Harini Nagendra explained how the city's explosive growth came at a steep environmental cost. Rapid expansion clogged waterways, eliminated green cover, and destroyed wetlands. We have flooding because water has no place to go, drought because the water is not infiltrating into the ground, she noted, describing how residents are choking on pollution and concrete.
The water crisis affects nearly half the city's population who depend on borewells that dry up in summer, while others rely on expensive water tankers. Between 2014 and 2024, Karnataka's software exports quadrupled to $46 billion, but this economic success has strained the city's resources beyond capacity.
Despite the challenges, veteran investor TV Mohandas Pai maintains cautious optimism. He believes Bengaluru's infrastructure may be possibly three to five years behind requirements, but the long-term outlook remains positive. The future is going to be bright, but there is going to be pain, he told AFP, adding that India knows how to handle poverty, not prosperity.
As Manas Das of the Outer Ring Road Companies Association summarized, companies simply want the basics right - and today those basics are getting compromised. The warning from city planners is clear: something must be done now, or Bengaluru risks decay in the global technology ecosystem.
