‘What a nightmare’: Bengaluru man and his 8-month pregnant wife stuck in 7km-long traffic jam for 1.5 hours
A Bengaluru resident recently took to Reddit to share his experience of cruising on HAL Road near Varthur on Monday evening. He said what should have been a short drive turned into an hour-and-a-half ordeal to cover just 7km. He added that he took his 8-month-old pregnant wife for a routine check-up, but the extreme traffic jams left him gripped by fear and anxiety.
The resident recounted the helplessness of being stuck in the traffic jam, describing the feeling of being “just an easy target, stuck in a metal box”, with each passing minute intensifying his worry.
He wrote: “What if it’s a real emergency? What if she’s in labor right now? The sheer helplessness is suffocating. You just sit there, watching the clock go by, powerless to do anything. We pay insane road taxes for the privilege, and yet the infrastructure is failing us. I truly believe this city is doomed. The roads are falling apart, the traffic is completely unmanageable and it feels like it’s there is no way out. What an outcome.” nightmare…”
The post quickly went viral and resonated with Bangalore residents, many of whom shared similar experiences of being trapped in the city’s increasingly heavy traffic.
One user advised: “Brother, I think you should temporarily move to a nearby hospital because it could have been an emergency. Or at least rent a place near the hospital, maybe a hotel or Airbnb.”
A second user commented: “Brother, leave Bangalore if possible for a month until you have your baby at least, this city is really not livable anymore. I sometimes seriously pity people who live in IT corridor, especially, what a dystopian world they live in.”
Another recounted his own ordeal: “I can understand! My mother and sister met with an accident and I had to rush to visit them in the hospital. I was stuck in that U-turn near Bellandur. Longest 45 minutes of my life. I regretted going to Bellandur office that day!”
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Thursday announced that the State Cabinet has approved the 117-km ring road project, now renamed the Bengaluru Business Corridor. The project, expected to be completed within two years, is expected to reduce traffic congestion in Bangalore by almost 40 per cent.
The corridor will connect Tumakuru Road to Mysuru Road, passing through Yelahanka and Electronic City. Of the total stretch, 73 km will cover north Bengaluru, while the remaining part will serve the southern part of the city. The government plans to raise ₹27,000 crore through HUDCO to finance the project.
