Whitefield traffic woes may soften in 2023

A sleeping village got transformed into a buzzing IT hub. That is Whitefield suburb in Bangalore. Two decades ago, there were farm houses here but today 20 to 30 lakhs people come here everyday for work. It is really difficult for anyone in town planning to do justice in their jobs when the growth rate is so high.

Those who work in Whitefield come from all parts of Bangalore. Naturally the roads were clogged and traffic jams became frequent and average speed dropped to 10-15 km per hour. I am both a contributor to the traffic mess here (I worked 18 out of my 20 years here) and also a victim of lost productivity, health loss due to pollution.

Metro, if it is in Bangalore, it has to come to Whitefield. Work started here too many years ago. But the civil construction occupied half of road space which were already congested making the traffic problem even worse. My office commute time increased from 45 mins (20 years ago) to at least 2 hours in one direction. It was one of the reasons I started looking for a job elsewhere and that helped me stay away from Whitefield for 2 years. But destiny brought me back to Whitefield. Thanks to Corona, I did not have to come to office for two straight years. And now, I come 1-2 times a week.

Things don't remain the same. Civil construction work of Metro is almost complete. So roads do not have barricades bearing the name "Namma Metro", so vehicles can move on much easily. It is such a relief. And when Metro begins operations sometime in 2023, it will take many vehicles off the road. And Whitefield will become like other parts of Bangalore. There will be traffic but you are not scared to come to Whitefield.

When the peripheral ring road comes into action (don't know how many years it will take), it would reduce big trucks coming this way.

But the real change is, IT as an industry is not growing like before. It has become just another industry. New jobs being created in Whitefield won't be astronomical. And there are lots of residential spaces being constructed around Whitefield, people can live here and don't have to go back to center of the town.

All these things would mean the traffic jams in Whitefield were more likely problems of yester years and a part of memory you would not want to recall.

(Photo taken from office window at ITPL, Whitefield showing Metro line passing through and residential spaces coming up at a distance)