Prime Minister Narendra Modi has suggested a six-point approach to reduce Bengaluru’s worsening traffic congestion, including staggered timings for schools, colleges and offices, longer operating hours for malls and commercial areas, scientific parking management, faster metro expansion and stronger use of public transport.
The suggestions were shared during an informal discussion with Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and minister Krishna Byre Gowda after the inauguration of Namma Metro’s Pink Line, according to a report by Vijay Karnataka. Modi reportedly expressed concern over the scale of congestion in the state capital and discussed measures he said had helped address traffic problems during his tenure as Gujarat chief minister.
The proposed timing changes would seek to prevent schools, government offices and private companies from starting and ending at the same time. Modi said the simultaneous movement of vehicles during morning and evening peak hours was adding to pressure on Bengaluru’s roads. The report said he suggested creating a time gap between the operating hours of different institutions and prioritising office timings as part of the traffic response.
The proposal to extend the operating hours of malls, hotels, restaurants and commercial establishments into the night is intended to spread shopping and business-related travel beyond peak periods. The report said this could reduce some pressure on roads during the busiest hours, while also expanding the city’s late-night commercial activity.
The six suggestions include phased changes to school, college and office timings; separate schedules for government and private institutions; longer night-time operations for malls and commercial areas; a scientific parking policy; faster metro network expansion; and greater encouragement for public transport.
Parking was identified as another immediate concern. Modi reportedly called for a citywide scientific parking system, action against vehicles parked indiscriminately on roads and an increase in designated parking spaces. The measures would cover two-wheelers, autorickshaws and cars, whose roadside parking can reduce usable road space and obstruct movement on already congested corridors.
The report stated that Bengaluru has more than 1.5 crore registered vehicles, while thousands of additional vehicles enter and leave the city every day from neighbouring districts and states. During peak periods, traffic on several major roads becomes severely congested, with some stretches allowing vehicles to move at only about 9 kilometres per hour.
The suggestions also place faster metro expansion and increased public transport use at the centre of the longer-term response. The Pink Line inauguration has added to Bengaluru’s expanding rail network, but the report did not provide a new implementation schedule, funding commitment or administrative order for the six measures.
Bengaluru already has late-night food streets in areas including V.V. Puram, Basavanagudi, Vijayanagar, Jayanagar, Malleshwaram, K.R. Puram, Raghavanahalli, Uttarahalli, Kengeri and Marathahalli. The report said these businesses serve people working late and could form part of a wider extension of night-time commercial activity. No formal decision on expanding operating hours or changing institutional schedules was announced in the supplied report.
