[naveenroy]

Originally Posted by srishiva

Why cant they setup up IT parks adjoining NICE road? Just the campuses with a green buffer zone and not allowing any other commercial activity around them.

Hopefully companies not expanding in Bengaluru will stay in India and not go elsewhere which is what they might do.

That is what won't happen. Someone will grease the palms of the local politico as soon as some IT companies come up and commercial and residential establishments will mushroom at once. Then, they will turn it into another Whitefield. Cycle will continue.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by srishiva

Why cant they setup up IT parks adjoining NICE road? Just the campuses with a green buffer zone and not allowing any other commercial activity around them.

Hopefully companies not expanding in Bengaluru will stay in India and not go elsewhere which is what they might do.

It will turn into another ORR mess. Thats what I told a few pages back. The ORR was not meant to build tech parks around it. It was an alternate connection from various highways entering Bangalore and also a link between marathahallo whitefield to south bangalore on one side and north bangalore on the other.

If NICE road becomes like this, then we will have Ecospace #2 clogging the whole road and creating jams till the nearest tollbooths Rather they should build a set of roads parallel to NICE and then build tech parks adjoining to it. Let those who want to cross the city cross with peace, while us techies stand in queues. Quite fair IMO.

[Soumyajit9]

I am so fed up with Marathalli bridge now !!

At 6:30 AM this morning, I was stuck from Purva Rivera till Marathalli bridge, because of the criss cross on top of the bridge.

Now coming at night shift, at 11:45 PM, on the opposite lane, I see a long queue of vehicles from Purva Riviera till Marathalli bridge. Jam at this hour !!

Authorities need to immediately close the break in median on top of the bridge !
I believe this was done to stop ORR jam by closing the U-Turn infront of Innovative Multiplex.
They have just shifted the jam from that point to the top of the flyover.

[joslicx]

Originally Posted by Soumyajit9

They have just shifted the jam from that point to the top of the flyover.

That, my dear friend, is one of the fundamental truths in India. Jams cannot be destroyed. They can only be transfered from one point to another.

I guess one day BTP shall shift the jam again. Its not their fault though that the roads in this city are such a design marvel.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by Soumyajit9

I am so fed up with Marathalli bridge now !!

At 6:30 AM this morning, I was stuck from Purva Rivera till Marathalli bridge, because of the criss cross on top of the bridge.

Now coming at night shift, at 11:45 PM, on the opposite lane, I see a long queue of vehicles from Purva Riviera till Marathalli bridge. Jam at this hour !!

Authorities need to immediately close the break in median on top of the bridge !
I believe this was done to stop ORR jam by closing the U-Turn infront of Innovative Multiplex.
They have just shifted the jam from that point to the top of the flyover.

This reminds me of the law of conservation of energy. I shall modify that to suit the current traffic scenario in Bangalore.
We know that energy can neither be created nor destroyed but can be transformed from one form to another. Likewise with the present infrastructure in Bangalore, jams can be created, shifted from one point to another but not destroyed until and unless we widen the roads, do not allow concentration of tech parks in only one location.... etc.

[Soumyajit9]

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

This reminds me of the law of conservation of energy. I shall modify that to suit the current traffic scenario in Bangalore.

And to adhere to that, I have now modified my travel times again. Now I start more early each way !
A day will come when I will do half a day at work and leave early to encounter lesser jams

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by audioholic

It will turn into another ORR mess. Thats what I told a few pages back. The ORR was not meant to build tech parks around it. It was an alternate connection from various highways entering Bangalore and also a link between marathahallo whitefield to south bangalore on one side and north bangalore on the other.

If NICE road becomes like this, then we will have Ecospace #2 clogging the whole road and creating jams till the nearest tollbooths Rather they should build a set of roads parallel to NICE and then build tech parks adjoining to it. Let those who want to cross the city cross with peace, while us techies stand in queues. Quite fair IMO.

A green zone is something in between NICE and the actual campus. They need to be as far from the road itself with more than one exit/entry into the park.

[MavericK46]

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

Till such time the big shots of companies take a decision to move out of Bangalore, I am afraid the situation will remain as it is. It is high time that IT companies move out of Bangalore to places like Tumkur, Nelamangala, Yelahanka etc....

Companies are contemplating moving out of Traffic-jam-alore.
There's no real incentive to move to the places you've mentioned though

Hence, they could very well be heading to Hyderabad:
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper...cle7982008.ece

I had the misfortune of riding to work today...

Thanks to all the changes in and around Marathahalli bridge, I decided to take my chances and headed towards the bridge rather than use either of a couple of alternate routes.
Having reached Marathahalli at around 10AM, I reached work at 10:35.
Short of a hail-mary like what the Delhi government has attempted, I don't really see a solution to the mess that is named ORR.

Cheers !

Sundar

[itwasntme]

Interesting to note that these gigantic traffic jams and overall congestion have already introduced significant inefficiency for whom travelling around the city was commonplace even a couple of years earlier.

I have many friends in consulting for whom the work-day is now focused on servicing only one client (or at best two) per day, and that too preferably in the general vicinity of each other. Gone are the days when a supervisor could commit to his/her various teams across BLR that he/she would drop in and review their work.

Now, each one of them carefully plan their work week taking traffic (foremost) into account and also building in massive buffers before important meetings. This translates into a substantial amount of idle time and most of them have moved to four wheelers (with chauffeurs), just because they need to work while on the move; also factor in the crackdown by the police on even Bluetooth headsets etc. plus there are definite distraction-related safety issues involved.

Even while being driven, there are limitations with working (on laptops etc.) while being driven as many people get headaches, causes increased eye-strain, battery life issues (unless one has bought a car inverter etc.). Inevitably it increases pressure on the individual and potentially, quality of life and work suffers.

My worry for Bangalore is that soon someone will collate this idle time, convert into time cost, overlay it on the quality of life and work issues, and ‘BANG’ goes new investment into BLR! Given that our ministers are busy planning multiple ring roads for 10 years or more, it is our precious city that will continue to suffer for years to come.

I welcome the idea of business parks with green zones being built far away from current city limits with scalable infrastructure (like in EU and US), and hope that bold corporates will take up such initiatives instead of blaming the government for everything!

Apologies for the rant but I am seeing this precious city completely going to the dogs at warp speed :-(

[glenmz]

I stay behind embasy tech park. My wife currently works at Ecospace at her clients office. The commute distance from home to Ecospace is about 3 Kms. The return should be about 4 Km considering the U turn at Bellandur.

The commute time to her office ranges from 10 to 15 minutes. The time taken for her to reach home back is a whopping 1 hour 30 minutes. The best commute time was 1 hour 15 minutes . I reach home from JP nagar in about 1 hour with moderate traffic (I travel against the traffic most times). I was shocked to hear about her travel time! Most of the time is spent in getting the car our from parking till the Ecospace exit!

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Interesting to note that these gigantic traffic jams and overall congestion have already introduced significant inefficiency for whom travelling around the city was commonplace even a couple of years earlier.

I have ranted on this earlier as well. I had actually got rejected for an interview call as the company was not very sure on my commitment, because their office and my residence was 18-20kms apart. I did try to explain to them the possible routes I can take, but the HR out there was not convinced that I would be willing to travel so much every day. So we may soon see a Japan of World War II* type situation where the employees in a company would also get accommodated in flats in the vicinity.

My worry for Bangalore is that soon someone will collate this idle time, convert into time cost, overlay it on the quality of life and work issues, and ‘BANG’ goes new investment into BLR!

We must also understand that for many people (Techies), they want Bangalore more than Bangalore wanting them. This is because of the job opportunities out here, and people willing to work themselves to death for a decent pay. If some one says that he is quitting a job due to traffic problems, at present there could be ten others who would be willing to pick up the job. The corporates whose love for employees is more cosmetic, then would really see no reason to go else where. Or else their nature of work should be that even the loss of a couple of employees makes them lose a significant revenue.

* Read that in Japan the employees of weapon factories were all quartered very close to the factory. Because of which casualties were also high during bombing raids. The bombs were meant to hit the weapon factories, but the civilians (family of employees) also got killed in the process.

[sdp1975]

Well, these days it's companies quitting Bangalore for traffic reasons, not employees.

A recent survey - believe it was in Cap Gemini - showed average employee time at office going down to 7-7.5 hrs from 9 hrs due to traffic problems. Now that's a massive decrease close to 20%, translating directly to productivity , billing, etc. Beyond a certain point, companies can't take a hit.


And finding skilled employees in the market isn't easy either - saying this from experience. A skilled employee leaving a product company, finding a replacement , the replacement learning the product - a loss for the company. Easier said than done.

[ambivalent_98]

Originally Posted by joslicx

I guess one day BTP shall shift the jam again. Its not their fault though that the roads in this city are such a design marvel.

We should appreciate that BTP gives variety in the life of the commuters using these roads. Variety is the spice of life

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

......Beyond a certain point, companies can't take a hit......

That'll be the turning point, I'd say.

Traffic woes were limited to employee discomfort so far (who cares for the sardines as long as the tin reaches the godown, eh?), but it's started to affect productivity (ergo revenue & profits), and that' where most corporates will draw the line. Can't lose money, No Siree!


P.S. It's got so bad, I don't remember the last instance my office cab picked me up or reached office on time.

[naveenroy]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

Traffic woes were limited to employee discomfort so far (who cares for the sardines as long as the tin reaches the godown, eh?), but it's started to affect productivity (ergo revenue & profits), and that' where most corporates will draw the line. Can't lose money, No Siree!

This is the point. Only then will corporates realise that something has to be done about traffic. They might start forcing employees to move closer to office. Hehe corporates. Reminds me of the movie Matrix.