A waterlogged stretch on the Ring Road near Kadubeesanahalli.
DH Photo/BK Janardhan
Bengaluru: Continuous showers for at least two hours on Thursday evening led to severe traffic congestion on the Outer Ring Road, with vehicles piling up bumper to bumper till late evening.
Traffic police and residents noted that because it rained for nearly two hours nonstop, all the vehicles streaming out of tech parks at once found themselves in a long trail of slow-moving traffic.
“The congestion was cleared only by around 8.30 pm,” said an officer deployed to manage traffic near Kadubeesanahalli. “There were more vehicles getting onto the ORR than were moving forward. This led to a long line of vehicles crawling,” he said.
The number of vehicles exceeded the road capacity, while ongoing metro construction has blocked the service road and eaten away at the road space. Waterlogging due to blocked shoulder drains continues to be an issue.
Some commuters took to X to complain. One such user posted a screenshot of the Maps, showing a bright red line along the ORR for a distance of 3.2 km. The estimated time of trip completion was 20 minutes according to the screenshot.
Another user, Citizens Movement, East Bengaluru (@east_bengaluru) posted: “Extreme traffic Jams on ORR and all the adjoining roads due to rain. Average speed: 4.8km/h. Stay there wherever you are, don’t move out!”