ITPI JOURNAL

4 : 2 (2007) 52 - 59

I T P I
JOURNAL
www.itpi.org.in

SPACES OF MOBILITY IN THE CITY CENTRE, BANGALORE THE ROLE AND

IMPACT OF TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE
MAMATHA P. RAJ

Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, B.M.S. College of Engineering, Bangalore

MADHU CHAND K.R.

Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, B.M.S. College of Engineering, Bangalore

ABSTRACT
This paper examines the various reasons responsible for the tremendous growth of Bangalore and its impact on the city centre,
Central Business District, focusing mainly on issues related to traffic and transportation. Any change that occurs in the city centre is
the direct result of changes in metropolitan development, land use and communications. Hence, to find the reasons for congestion in
the city centre, the city scenario is also considered by trying to understand the pattern of connectivity network, public and private
transport statistics. Some of the broad indicators related to traffic and transportation such as vehicular trips, volume capacity ratio,
parking and pedestrian problems and air pollution are analysed for the city and the CBD. Analysis of these factors has indicated
definite reasons for increase in vehicles and traffic congestion in spite of the measures taken by the authorities. This analysis helped
authors to arrive at measures required to improve the efficiency of the city centre for streamlining the traffic and transportation
situation in Bangalore.

1
INTRODUCTION
Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka, has a history
of over 400 years. With the contributions from
various rulers it developed as the administrative
centre during the British period. Being the 5th
largest city in India, Bangalore is one of the fastest
growing cities in the world. It has not only
developed as headquarters of administration and
an educational center of Karnataka but has also
witnessed tremendous growth as a prominent
industrial and IT services center in the country.
Presently, it is an international technology hub and
popularly known as the Silicon Valley of India.
Tremendous growth of Bangalore has extended
outwards resulting in increase in geographical area
from 175 sq km in 1971 to 540 at present with a
proposal from the Government to increase to 750
sq km to meet the growing demands of the
population which has shown a steep increase from
5.7 million inhabitants as of 2001 Census to
estimated 7 million in 2007. Sudden explosion of
population has given rise to uncontrolled
expansion, with the city absorbing various
economic activities, migrated population and large
investments from multi-national companies,
without focused development. This has led to
problems such as encroachments, imbalance in
the existing work home relationship due to
scattering of activities and severe lack of
infrastructure. For the development of the city,

among the other forms of infrastructure,

transportation is a major contributor. But it is under
severe strain and is unable to cope with the
growing demand more so in the city centre which
is the Central Business District of Bangalore.
The main reasons for the heavy volume of traffic
witnessed in the CBD, Bangalore are due to

Its strong centrality of administrative buildings,

financial headquarters, transport terminals,
cultural institutions and presence of informal
sector with a large number of commercial
establishments concentrated in the inner core.
These functions attract a large population
from within the city and surrounding region;

The transportation hub of Bangalore located

in the CBD attracts a large number of inter
and intra-city commuters to avail of the transit
traffic facility; and
Due to its central location, the CBD is used as
a thoroughfare to reach other destinations.

Any change that occurs in the city centre is the

direct result of changes in metropolitan
development, land use and communications. This
paper tries to put forward the causes for traffic
congestion in Bangalore and CBD and essential
measures required to streamline the traffic and
transportation.

Mamatha P. Raj / Madhu Chand K.R. / ITPI Journal 4 : 2 (2007) 52 - 59

Fig. 1 Road Network of Bangalore

PATTERN
NETWORK

OF

Corporation) and Bangalore City Railway Station

located in CBD, adjacent to each other, form the
major transit node of Bangalore. Railway network
caters only to the daily commuters who travel
from surrounding region to the city mainly for
work and business. These commuters find it
convenient to reach their destination within the
city by availing the intra-city bus facility situated
next to the Railway Station. This railway network
is not integrated to facilitate travel for the intracity commuters. Road network is the only
transport mode within Bangalore operated mainly
by BMTC which caters to nearly three and half
million commuters per day with a fleet of 4,203
buses plying nearly 60,700 trips per day (Source:
BMTC Annual Administration Report). Though the
main public transport node is located in the CBD,
none of the buses enter the inner core of CBD
because of the prohibitive widths of the roads.

CONNECTIVITY

Bangalore is growing outwards in a radial pattern

with the CBD as the origin. The radial pattern road
network (Fig. 1) has 12 arterial roads covering
250 kilometers approximately, connected by two
ring roads - Outer and Inner Ring Road with a
proposal to construct inner Core Ring Road. Subarterial roads connecting the collector roads of
the neighborhoods, are commonly known as main
and cross roads running north to south and east
to west respectively are more or less in grid iron
pattern. The city centre and CBD is a complex
and diverse zone and is bounded by wide roads.
While the inner core of the CBD is a web of narrow
and discontinuous internal roads. Its main roads
are intersected by a number of internal streets
and alleys of widths varying from 2 to 6 metres in
unorganized fashion.
3

3.1

3.2

VEHICLE STATISTICS

Private Transport

In Bangalore, for the last twenty five years (Table

1 and Fig. 2) the average increase in number of
vehicles has been at the rate of 20.22 percent
per annum (Source: http://rto.kar.nic.in/gen-

Public Transport

The Inter and Intra-state Bus Terminal, the Intracity Bus Stand (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport
53

Mamatha P.Raj / Madhu Chand K.R. / ITPI Journal 4 : 2 (2007) 52 - 59

Table 1 Bangalore Number of Motorized Vehicles and Growth Rate

(Figures as at the end of March each year)
Year
1980

2-Wheelers

Motor Cars

97,000

30,000

401,000

71,000

1985

189,000

1995

594,000

1990
2000
2005

994,000

1,570,000

Auto-Rickshaws
and Cabs

47,000

10,000

11,000

15,000

107,000

34,000

318,000

75,000

184,000

Source: http://rto.kar.nic.in/gen-infopg.htm

58,000

Others

Total

31,000

168,000

41,000

528,000

90.61

101,000

1,337,000

67.75

30,000

62,000

167,000

277,000

797,000

2,130,000

Percentage
increase
-

64.88

50.95
59.31

Fig. 2 Bangalore Number of Motorized Vehicles and Growth Rate

Source: http://www.bmtcinfo.com/english/ach.htm

infopg.htm), which is much higher compared to

other cities such as Ahmedabad, Pune and
Hyderabad. The number of motor vehicles
registered in Bangalore has increased four folds
more compared to its population growth rate.

Intermediate transport, comprising of autorickshaws and cabs, have a share of 4 percent

while the rest of the vehicles in the other
Fig. 3 Mode Split

Among the various private mode of transport,

the most preferred mode of travel in Bangalore is
two-wheeler which is 74 percent of the total
registered motor vehicle population and has shown
an increase at the rate of 11.6 percent per annum
since 2000 (Fig. 3). This mode is popular because
of its low maintenance cost, easy conveyance and
parking, faster to move during peak hours
compared to four-wheeler and other means of
public transport. The next preferred mode is car,
which has a share of 14 percent and is increasing
at the rate of 14.56 percent since 2000.

Sources: Report on Passenger Prediction Study for ELRTS

Bangalore, BMRTL, Compiled by Author
54

Mamatha P.Raj / Madhu Chand K.R. / ITPI Journal 4 : 2 (2007) 52 - 59

category, comprising of buses, trucks and other

heavy vehicles constituting nearly 8 percent of
the total vehicular population. The vehicle
composition in CBD is peculiar compared to the
rest of the city because of its road pattern and
width of right of way which do not permit transfer
of goods by faster modes. Hence there is a
significant number of slow moving modes of
transport such as hand drawn and animal drawn
carts which are part of the vehicle composition.
This mode of transport along with a number of
labourers carrying head-loads to shift the goods
to destination is time consuming and hinders the
movement of other fast moving traffic.
4

Fig. 4 Purpose Split

Sources: Report on Passenger Prediction Study for ELRTS

Bangalore, BMRTL, Compiled by Author

to 2.96, where as the value is as high as 3.5 in the

CBD. Ideally the ratio should be 1 and if it is above
1.2, then the road is considered dead as pointed
out in Recorded data from Traffic Engineers and
Safety Trainers. In this case, it means that there is
no space on road, which is what Bangalore
experience at peak hours. Also the growth rate
per annum of peak hour traffic volume is just 2 to
4 percent in CBD which indicates that the city
centre has reached saturation stage. Due to high
volume capacity ratio, the average journey speed
during the peak hours is 13 kmph while it is 25
kmph during off-peak hours and in core areas of
the CBD it is as low as 4 to 7 kmph on some of
the roads such as Avenue Road, Police Road, Tank
Bund Road and Balepet Main Road.

BROAD INDICATORS TRAFFIC AND

TRANSPORTATION

Bangalore City generates nearly 5.2 million trips

per day on an average of which nearly 80 percent
are related to work and education activities (Fig.
4). A large number of these trips whose destination
is not CBD also pass through this area as it is a
shorter route option to reach their destinations.
The number of peak hour trips is touching about
400,000 between 9.00 10.00 hrs and about
500,000 between 17.00 18.00 hrs as shown in
Fig. 5.
Bangalore has a peak hour volume of 10,000 PCU
in the central area, 3,000-7,000 PCU in the
intermediate area and 3,000-5,000 PCU in the
periphery. The volume capacity ratios on some
of the main roads in Bangalore ranges from 2.34

The other reason for increase in travel time is due

to intersections into arterial roads at frequent

Fig. 5 Hourly Person Trips

Multiple Sources: BMTC Annual Reports, Report on Passenger Prediction Study for ELRTS Bangalore, BMRTL, compiled by author
55

Mamatha P.Raj / Madhu Chand K.R. / ITPI Journal 4 : 2 (2007) 52 - 59

maintenance, skywalks and subways for

pedestrians convenience. Although people find it
easier and faster to reach their destination in the
inner core of the CBD by walk, since entry of
vehicles is difficult, no attention has been given to
the safety and convenience of pedestrians. The
inner core of the CBD has pavements ranging from
0.6 metres to 2 meters or in some cases there
are no pavements at all. Avenue Road, which is
one of the spines of the CBD, having pavements
on either side with a width of 1 to 1.5 metres, has
maximum spillover of pedestrians on to the road
and has nearly 4,500 as the peak hour pedestrian
flow.

intervals which has large vehicular flow and the

time taken in some of the traffic junctions is as
high as 200 seconds. In case of the CBD, the road
network is very dense with more number of
junctions, which are controlled manually or
through pre-programmed signals and in some
cases not even controlled. Heterogeneous mix of
fast and slow moving vehicles without dedicated
lanes has added to the delay in travel time which
increases further in the CBD due to the presence
of hand and animal drawn carts and labourers
carrying head loads.
Bangalore is facing acute shortage of space for
parking especially in the central part of Bangalore
and in intensely developed commercial areas.
Installation of parking meters, manual collection
of parking fees and couple of multi storeyed
parking facility are some of the measures existing
to streamline and alleviate the parking problems
but these are woefully inadequate. In some cases
the multi storeyed parking facility is underutilized,
as there is free on-street parking available close
by. In the CBD, there is a severe crisis of parking
and on-street parking facility has further reduced
the efficiency of the existing narrow roads. At no
point of time, throughout the day during working
hours, the parking bays are free and hence one
finds it difficult to park vehicles, especially for fourwheelers. Avenue Road which has the maximum
number of commercial establishments has
provision for only two-wheeler parking for about
1,800, which are occupied throughout the day.
Also, owners of commercial establishments occupy
a percentage of parking bays for longer duration
resulting in inadequacy of parking bays for vehicles
which need parking for shorter duration. The CBD,
which has wholesale activities, draws trucks
carrying goods into the inner core areas such as
Kalasipalyam, B.V.K. Iyengar Road, K.R.Market and
Tharagupet. Tharagupet has around 400 vehicles
parked at a time of which nearly 200 are trucks.
Lack of designated area for loading and unloading
of goods adds to the number of trucks parked
on the road for longer duration and most of the
times in a haphazard manner.

Bangalores air pollution is largely attributed to

increase in the number of vehicles. Anand Rao
Traffic Intersection, in the CBD, has shown that
the PM10 and TSP levels are steadily decreasing
since 2001, but are still above the Indian National
Ambient Air Quality Standards (Central Pollution
Control Board). Growth of city during the last
decade has contributed to the worsening situation
of air pollution in Bangalore. The other threat to
urban population is road accidents, which though
shows decline, is not very significant even with
certain traffic measures taken by authorities to
avoid traffic related problems. The number of road
accidents which was 10,505 in 2003 has come
down to 9,101 in 2004 and has already touched
5,660 as of September 2005 ( Bangalore Traffic
Police Office, 2005).
4.1

Pedestrian safety is neglected when making

infrastructure development proposals. The city
lacks proper facilities such as pavements and its

56

Reasons for Increase in Number of

Vehicles

Increase in population is mainly due to

migration and growth of IT and service sectors
in Bangalore offering better job opportunities.

Inadequate public transport which is unable

to meet the demands of the growing
population and convenience and comfort of
private vehicles and auto-rickshaws.
Unpopularity of public transport in case of
educational institutions and the trend in hiring
cabs by ITeS sector and public has increased
the private and intermediate mode of
transport.
Comfortable cars which are bigger in size which
have occupancy of 2 during peak hours have

Mamatha P.Raj / Madhu Chand K.R. / ITPI Journal 4 : 2 (2007) 52 - 59

4.2

become a status symbol with more people

preferring to buy such vehicles.

roads reducing the efficiency of the road for

movement of other vehicles and pedestrians.

Auto rickshaws which are a popular mode of

intermediate transport during peak hours in
Bangalore has a vehicle occupancy of only
1.1 adding to the increased volume during
peak hour traffic in a large way.

With industries and residential development

moving out to the suburbs due to better amenities
and incentives, the segregation of land use has
taken place. The CBD, which has concentration
of government offices, transport nodes and
commercial activities, both wholesale and retail,
attracts city dwellers, which has resulted in large
number of vehicles moving in and out of the CBD.

Affordability and easy access to financial

institutions which have reduced the interest
rates on vehicle loans from 15 percent to 8
to 10 percent.

4.3

Increase in the household income and

improvement in the standard of living

Measures to
Congestion

Address

Traffic

To increase the width of roads, streamline

discontinuous roads and create multiple
connectivity options for commuters. Increasing
the width of roads has led to accommodating more
traffic, and with the consistency in width not
maintained bottlenecks are the net results for
congestion. These proposals are mainly delayed
due to litigation of land acquisition for improving
the connectivity or presence of the village with
traditional fabric getting disturbed by cutting
across with new road network. This is more so in
case of the CBD which has traditional network
pattern of road designed 500 years ago for more
pedestrian oriented travel. This road network has
remained the same whereas the properties facing
the roads have changed the landuse as well as
increased the density by constructing more
number of floors. The changes that occurred in
the CBD with the growth of the city were
unplanned leading to random land use
distribution, number of fragmented properties and
increased circulation.

Causes for Traffic Congestion

Road connectivity network of Bangalore has no

consistency in road widths and roads are
discontinuous. The arterial roads are intersected
by local roads at frequent intervals leading to
bottlenecks and congestion. The inner core road
network of the CBD is choked due to lack of good
connectivity and legibility with the volume
capacity ratio of 2.5. Although the ring roads
can take the increased volume of traffic, people
tend to use the CBD as thoroughfare, as the ring
road is about 8 kilometers away from the city
centre. To travel this extra distance is a burden
on the public in terms of time and cost.
The number of vehicles on the road is much more
than the carrying capacity of the roads leading to
congestion, reduced speed and delay in travel
time. The other reason for congestion is that
Bangalore has buses as the only mode of public
transport as the railways contribute to only
intercity passenger traffic and cargo traffic and
are not aligned to integrate with the city network
to carry the intra-city commuters.

One way traffic has reduced the traffic congestion

to a certain extent but the travel distance, time,
fuel consumption, cost of travel, pollution and
impact on environment has increased. With this
solution of roundabout travel the amount spent
which is about 8 percent of monthly income, would
increase further to 10-15 percent.

Due to lack of adequate parking facilities, on-street

parking has reduced the width of the roads, more
so in the CBD which has narrow roads. Moreover,
spill over of pedestrians on to the road due to ill
maintained, inadequate or absence of pavements
has increased the congestion on the roads. In the
areas such as Kalasipalyam, Tharagupet and other
parts of the CBD trucks enter during late night
hours and are parked throughout the day on the

Dedicated traffic lanes have been allotted only for

auto-rickshaws in the central parts of Bangalore
such as K.G. Road, M.G. Road and surrounding
areas which is not strictly followed.
57

Mamatha P.Raj / Madhu Chand K.R. / ITPI Journal 4 : 2 (2007) 52 - 59

as connectivity, accessibility and mobility needs

to be addressed.

Flyovers have pushed the congestion problem to

the next intersection without much of a positive
sign of ease in overall traffic congestion.
5

PROJECTED
SCENARIO
RECOMMENDED MEASURES

To achieve this, some of the measures that need

to be considered with respect to traffic and
transportation are that Bangalore requires mass
transportation system to discourage private
vehicle ownership and to reduce travel time.

AND

If the same trend continues without effective

measures to streamline the transportation sector
the roads will not be in a position to take the
increased number of vehicles from 2.3 million to
projected figure of 3.8 million in five years from
now. Similarly the number of trips per day may
shoot up to 8 million from present 6 million and
peak hour speed may reduce to 10 kmph outside
the CBD. Within the CBD the peak hour speed
has already touched 4 kmph and in future the
time taken for the journey will only increase further
thereby leading to a situation where travel time
by any mode will become comparatively equal.
Experience in other cities have shown that when
the network speed reach such low levels, no more
growth takes place in the core areas of the city
which will gradually percolate into the surrounding
areas as well.

Public transportation is the backbone of the citys

transport system. In case of Bangalore, a
metropolitan city, exploring alternative modes of
mass transport system along with strengthening
of the existing system used as public transport is
vital. Apart from providing optimum travel time,
cost and reasonable comfort, policies must be
framed with attractive incentives to encourage
use of public transport. Also the dependence on
the transit node located in the CBD can be
reduced by creating sub-centres outside central
parts of Bangalore.
Good connectivity, adequate parking and
pedestrian facilities should be enhanced in order

The CBD is the nucleus of this region comprising

of small scale industries related to fabric and chindi
threading, dyeing, finishing of art silks, fabricating
trunk and jewelry boxes, printing, packaging and
book binding. It also houses trading of various
goods like electrical accessories, fabric rolls, saris,
textiles, dyes and chemicals, brass and copper
utensils, power tools, musical instruments,
perishable goods, food grains, watches and clocks,
making and trading of gold and silver jewelry. It
has maximum number of state government offices
located in Gandhinagar and transportation sector
in Subhashnagar and Kalasipalyam. It has a
number of reputed hospitals and nursing homes
such as Victoria, Vanivilas, Minto, Marthas which
are also the oldest hospitals catering to Bangalore
and its surrounding region.

to bring down the number of vehicles which

use city centre as a thoroughfare;
to reduce the conflict of on-street parked
vehicles and moving vehicles;

unnecessary traversing on the same road in

search of parking slots is curtailed; and
to improve the road efficiency.

Ring roads play an important role in dispersing

transit traffic and hence these roads need to be
reinforced in the existing road network. An inner
core ring road covering the central part of
Bangalore will help to divert the traffic from
entering the CBD. Provision and segregation of
public and intermediate transport vehicle bays as
part of road network will help to avoid confusion
and congestion.

Due to haphazard development and its inability

to take the increased traffic volume, the
accessibility to CBD has become difficult thereby
losing some of the functions to the secondary
CBDs and outlying suburbs which have better
accessibility and amenities. To increase the
efficiency of this prime urban space, aspects such

Multistoried and sub-terranean parking is an

alternative solution to on-street parking. These
structures require less land area, accommodate
more number of vehicles and operate effectively
if automated parking facility is introduced. For
economic feasibility, private developers may be
involved in the construction and operation of
58

Mamatha P.Raj / Madhu Chand K.R. / ITPI Journal 4 : 2 (2007) 52 - 59

these facilities with these structures having higher

FAR, more so in CBD where the land is scarce and
land values are high. Pedestrians, who are the
most neglected lot, should be given their due
recognition in the development proposals by
providing user friendly designed pavements,
skywalks and sub-ways.

sensors are incorporated in the traffic monitoring

system. ITS will help to channel the traffic
movement by redirecting, rerouting commuters
from congested areas. Road pricing mechanisms
like road tolls, area or cordon tolls are some of the
measures to discourage usage of congested areas
in peak hours.

Effective rules and regulations should be made to

avoid encroachments, illegal constructions and
activities. With the development of the city, the
city centre is unable to cope up with the pressure
of space requirement leading to spill-over of
activities beyond its boundary. Effective rules and
regulations will arrest such encroachments in CBD,
especially the basement spaces, meant for parking.
This will also help to stop the spill-over of
commercial establishments on to the pavements
and hawkers from pavements to the roads.

CONCLUSIONS

Transportation like any other activity in urban area

consumes space, which is most valuable.
Transportation which plays a vital role in the
development of citys economy needs to integrate
its policies within the macro framework of city
development strategies which will help to achieve
the desired mobility in the valuable urban space
of the city centre.
REFERENCES

Census of India (2001) Karnataka, Provisional Population Totals,

Rural-Urban Distribution of Population, Series 30, Bangalore.

Conversion of buildings to other land use activities

can be stopped, especially in case of CBD, where
residential land use is changing rapidly to
commercial land use for higher returns. Such
controls on the commercial development will also
have a positive impact on the traffic flow.

Bangalore Development Authority (2005) Master Plan 2015:

Land Use Zonal Regulations, Volume 4, Draft, Bangalore
Development Authority, Bangalore.

Bangalore Development Authority (1995) Comprehensive

Development Plan (Revised), Bangalore, Bangalore
Development Authority, Bangalore.

Effective management is essential to streamline

the traffic movement and related problems and
to incorporate intelligent transportation
technologies for better monitoring. Flexible model
helps in updating the existing system faster to
the changing requirements in the rapid
urbanization scenario. The city needs to evolve
new flexible models which will help to explore the
possibility of introducing synchronized traffic lights,
segregation of traffic, restriction of parking at peak
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reduce the congestion.

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59