Civic works choke east Bengaluru roads, schoolchildren stuck for hours

Traffic congestion in the Varthur, Gunjur and Balagere belt of east Bengaluru worsened sharply on Thursday, with schoolchildren spending more than two hours in buses on routes that normally take a fraction of that time. Some of the affected stretches were barely 5 km long.

Parents living in a private apartment complex in Gunjur tracked the travel time and distance from four schools to their homes. The exercise showed that children were on the road for over two hours even though the average distance covered was only about 6 km.

Residents said the ordeal has become routine over the past week, with the return journey from school taking nearly twice as long as usual. On Thursday, however, the delays triggered panic, and parents called civic agencies, the traffic police and schools in large numbers.

Pavitra Holla, a Gunjur resident, described the locality as a "whirlpool of mud" rather than a residential area. She said school buses ran nearly two hours late and that children reached home exhausted, hungry and covered in dust.

Another resident, Ramya, said the poor road infrastructure could affect children's health and academic performance. She noted that the area hosts some of the city's leading private schools, yet connectivity remains inadequate, and that the children's daily schedules have been disrupted.

A senior traffic officer attributed the spike in congestion to ongoing infrastructure work. Civic works on State Highway 35, the Varthur-Sarjapur Road, along with white-topping on Gunjur Club Road, have pushed a large volume of traffic onto smaller interior roads. School buses are using the same narrow lanes, and even a modest rise in vehicle numbers is enough to cause severe snarls, the officer said.

Rain on Tuesday and Wednesday compounded the problem, the officer added. With few alternative routes available, heavy vehicles have been barred from the area's roads after 2 p.m., but the restrictions have not cleared the congestion.