3 hours for 5 km: Route lines on map turn darker shade of red

Bengaluru: Traffic on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) came to a near standstill throughout the day on Tuesday, as incessant rains and waterlogging at multiple points caused severe bottlenecks.

Despite the large deployment of traffic police, commuters took an average of three hours to cover just five kilometres. The situation was equally dire on other arterial and sub-arterial roads.

“I was stuck in traffic for so long that I didn’t know where to stop for nature's call,” said Surendran K, a resident of Kalyan Nagar, describing the gridlock on the Outer Ring Road, home to several tech companies and multinational corporations. “I left the office at 6 pm and took about three hours to reach home,” he added.

Employees working in East Bengaluru, in areas such as Whitefield, Marathahalli, and Bellandur, also reported unusually long traffic jams on the Ring Road. “My colleagues who left Whitefield at 4.30 pm are still trying to reach South Bengaluru,” said a resident of JP Nagar. After spending two-and-a-half hours on half the journey, they tried an alternate route via Old Airport Road, but it offered no relief.

Another commuter mentioned it took her over an hour and a half to cover a three-kilometre stretch between Hosakerehalli and RR Nagar.

In many areas along the Outer Ring Road, including HRBR Layout, Ramamurthy Nagar, Hebbal, and Bellandur, service roads were partially submerged. There were no visible signs of de-silting or repairs to help drain the water properly.

The traffic congestion was so severe that the police had to block the exit gates of several tech parks to maintain the flow of vehicles.

The traffic police said waterlogging was reported across the entire 60-kilometre stretch of the Outer Ring Road, which witnessed a massive volume of traffic. "We never anticipated a situation like this. All parallel roads around the Ring Road were flooded, and the entire city struggled with inundated streets," said a traffic officer.

A flash flood between BEL Circle and Hebbal, triggered by the breaching of the Doddabommasandra Lake, halted traffic entirely in the evening. Every alternate road was clogged, leaving employees in East Bengaluru unable to leave their tech parks between 5 pm and 7.30 pm as police implemented measures to prevent a complete gridlock.