Bus breaks down on Bengaluru's ORR, traffic hit for hours

BENGALURU: A breakdown of a BMTC bus brought Bengalurus tech corridor, the Outer Ring Road (ORR), to a halt on Tuesday evening, causing massive traffic congestion during peak hours. According to the Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP), the traffic jam was triggered by a bus breakdown near the Ecospace Junction towards Marathahalli. At 4:43 pm, BTP posted an advisory on X, alerting commuters that traffic was moving slowly at Kadubeesanahalli, Devarabisanahalli, and Bellandur. Several commuters took to social media to express frustration after being stuck in traffic for hours. Massive jam on ORR towards Silk Board. All vehicles have been at a standstill for over half an hour. BTP, whats the issue? Every day we face one problem or another during the commute on ORR. Shame on the administration, wrote a user named Ashwatthama. Another commuter posted, Just one bus breaks down and the entire ORR comes to a halt over 5 km of traffic jam! Ive been stuck for two hours and havent even moved a kilometre. If this is all it takes to trigger chaos, what does that say about our infrastructure? Prathibha Sastry urged companies along ORR to reconsider the work-from-office mandate. Please advise companies in ORR to stop forcing employees to work from the office until the roads are ready for this traffic. Stuck at Marathahalli for over an hour. This is exhausting and very, very bad for health, she wrote. At 8:17 pm, the DCP (Traffic, South) posted on X that the congestion had been cleared: Traffic chaos on ORR sorted! The traffic police and support team pushed the stuck BMTC bus to ease congestion. Apart from the bus breakdown, other contributing factors included ongoing white-topping work, mid-week traffic pressure, and the closure of service roads for Metro construction.