Study of traffic congestion in Bangalore city

Abstract

Transport is the most critical aspect of any economy. A careful look at any business sector would lead one to concluding that transportation/communication plays a major rule, right from procurement of the raw material, shipping the finished goods, servicing the faulty produce etc. Manufacturing industry is the backbone of any developing economy. So transportation is an inseparable element of the very existence of the business process. The efficiency in this aspect would be a determinant in deciding the efficiency of the entire value chain. As per National Highways Authority of India, about 65% of the freight and 80% passenger traffic is carried by the roads. The total number of vehicles has been increasing at a rate of 10.16% per year over the last 5 years. The following table gives the distribution of the roads in the country. Roadways in India have come a long way. The usage of road, as the medium of transportation, both for goods and passengers, dates back to ancient times and finds mention in great Indian Literary works like Atharva Veda and Kautilya’s Arthashastra. Even today Road Transport is the most dominant mode of transportation even though the other modes of transport are on their anvil. Since the time of Independence Government of India as well as the Government authorities at various States and Union Territories have made and are continuing to make substantial investments in this area. Through this sector of public expenditure, the road network in India has seen several changes and modifications. But in the opinion of the majority citizens, this aspect needs a lot more improvements to make the supply match the demand for road transport in the country. Need for the study: With the increase in the population in the urban part of the country, the number of people using the road for transportation in daily life is soaring. Especially in a city like Bangalore, where Globalization of World Economy has led to tremendous growth in employment opportunities, people have moved from rural places in search of jobs and better lifestyle. This growth in the economy has led to unwanted consequence, one of the most influential among which is the deteriorating Quality of Infrastructure of Urban Transport in the city. The Government of Karnataka has invested and is continuing to invest substantial amount of money towards this expenditure sector but apparently, the problem continues to haunt us continually. The continuously rising number of vehicles poses a serious demand constraint on the available road network and the supply falls short of the demand in spite of the uninterrupted efforts by the Government. This is an implication that there is an operational bottleneck which is the main reason for the failure of all the strategies put forward by the Governmental intelligentsia. Hence an assessment of the flow of the traffic in some of the most congested corridors of the city was necessary which would provide us an indication of areas of improvement in these regions. Such an assessment has to be carried out regularly to ensure that new bottlenecks don’t arise in the flow of traffic in these regions. To provide some statistics, the number of motor vehicles registered in Bangalore increased from 2.36 Lakhs in 1983 to 6.85 Lakhs in 1992 and 21 Lakhs in 2004 – a whopping 289% and 278% in the mentioned periods.