[inner_roadster]

Calcutta overtakes Bengaluru to become India’s most traffic congested city in 2024



Calcutta has emerged as the most traffic-congested city in India, according to the TomTom Traffic Index 2024, published on Sunday. Last year, Bengaluru was the most traffic congested city in India.

The global index also revealed that three Indian cities now rank among the world’s top five most gridlocked urban centres. These are Calcutta, Bengaluru and Pune.

The TomTom index is published annually by a Dutch logistics company and features 500 cities across 62 countries. The TomTom Traffic Index bases its rankings on floating car data (FCD) from GPS navigation devices and applications. The 2024 analysis covered an unprecedented 737 billion kilometres of travel data worldwide.

The index’s methodology factors in both static elements like road infrastructure and dynamic variables such as weather and roadworks. The resulting congestion percentage represents increased travel time compared to free-flowing traffic conditions, offering a comprehensive picture of urban mobility challenges.

source : https://www.telegraphindia.com/galle...077099?slide=1

[sunikkat]

Calcutta is actually a smaller city by area in India, if we compare with other cities. So it is natural to have more traffic considering the population and it is part of original 4 metro cities. Most of the population will be focussed on few areas unlike cities like Bangalore which is widely spread.

So my point is, there’s very less that one can do to de-congest Calcutta, but a place like Bangalore with proper infrastructure a lot of traffic can be avoided.

[hothatchaway]

That is part of Calcutta or Kolkata's charm, where do you have to get in such hurry anyway?!

[Altocumulus]

Atlast someone agrees. I have always been saying Kolkata is more congested than Bangalore especially during peak times. It takes more time to travel a certain distance in Kolkata than it takes in Bangalore. Add to that narrower roads, patch work throughout, rowdy autos/totos/ bikes and Ubers.

Yes there are exceptional days in Bangalore for sure where you are stuck for 3 hours in the same place but that’s not a norm. Normally it’s moving traffic.

Frankly, during peak office hours all cities are same though.

[Bhodrolok]

Originally Posted by Altocumulus

Atlast someone agrees. I have always been saying Kolkata is more congested than Bangalore especially during peak times. It takes more time to travel a certain distance in Kolkata than it takes in Bangalore. Add to that narrower roads, patch work throughout, rowdy autos/totos/ bikes and Ubers.

But Calcutta has a mature metro, local trains even water transport but there are no alternative options in Bangalore, you are stuck with only driving on the clogged up roads.

[locusjag]

What?!

I am shocked. Based on my work visits to Kolkata's salt lake and new town areas in 2018 & 2019, I have been singing paeans to anyone who will listen about how great Kolkata's traffic flow is, with its flyovers, broad and free road conditions.

I guess I was only privy to the "new" Kolkata then.

[DigitalOne]

Originally Posted by Bhodrolok

But Calcutta has a mature metro, local trains even water transport but there are no alternative options in Bangalore, you are stuck with only driving on the clogged up roads.

Currently, Kolkatta has 58.7 kms of metro, while Bengaluru has 75.6kms of metro.

In another 5-6 months, another 19kms of metro (Yellow line) will be operational in Bengaluru. By end-2026 or start of 2027, the pink line (21.5 kms) will be operational. Sometime in 2027-2028, the entire Blue line (56 kms) will be operational i.e. a total of around 96kms of new lines will be become operational in the next 3 years.

Bengaluru has the second longest metro network in India and will hold this place for quite some time.

Source

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by inner_roadster

The TomTom index is published annually by a Dutch logistics company and features 500 cities across 62 countries. The TomTom Traffic Index bases its rankings on floating car data (FCD) from GPS navigation devices and applications. The 2024 analysis covered an unprecedented 737 billion kilometres of travel data worldwide.

Guys,
Let's take this report with a pinch of salt. What the article fails to highlight is the FCD data is archive of GPS data obtained from navigation devices and applications by road users with TomTom devices only. (source).

How many of us actually own TomTom devices/applications with regards to city usage? I'm sure the overwhelming vast majority of us use Google Maps.

Now, Calcutta roads are definitely traffic heavy; as are other metro cities of India. There's no doubt about that. Which cities top the list is another matter; but I would probably not read too much into this report.

[Bhodrolok]

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

Currently, Kolkatta has 58.7 kms of metro, while Bengaluru has 75.6kms of metro.

It's not about length of track alone but also which areas the metro serves, Bangalore metro is present in a lot of the non peak traffic zones- Ecity, ORR, etc where as in Calcutta the metro serves the more peak traffic zones.

[DogNDamsel12]

There! There! Who touched my raw nerve!

I have had discussions about Kolkata's road conditions in multiple social forums where people have fiercely defended our beloved city of joy to the bits.

Fact is that the roads maketh Calcutta the City of Killjoy, really. (Okay residents, kill me if you will!) And this is despite the fact, that other living conditions are so much better and even competitive - smart and modern infrastructure, media and entertainment industry, street food, restaurants, a more pliant climate, greenery, generally friendly people, and a rich culture and heritage.

Here is my take on the woes:

Infrastructure failures

1. The city has only about 6 percent of roads, compared to 15-20 percent in cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Bombay.
   
   
2. The road surface is pathetic. I have forgotten what the right lane/fast lane should feel like, in my last 4 years of living in Kolkata. The entire Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, which is supposed to be the 32-km main road, has humped interspersed patches of about 5 feet in length on the right side. You can never take the right lane to safely overtake or accelerate. I would always stay closer to the traffic in mid-lane. Imagine this is supposed to run from one end of the city to the other.
   
   
3. Flyovers are extremely narrow with no run-offs on the left, unlike in Delhi/Bangalore. Even in the longest flyover like the 4-lane "Maa Flyover." The bikers are coming onto car drivers, more so during rush hours. If there is a breakdown, causes traffic snarls immediately.
   
   
4. Unplanned / Impermanent and fragile construction - Alright, admitted that Calcutta receives a lot more rain than many other places. However, most road construction that happens in one year goes threadbare the next year (Belgharia Expressway, Jessore Road which is also the connecting highway to North Bengal). Mind you this is not the work of the state public works, but also the kind of contracting that NHAI is doing. The contractors get the same contract year on year to build the same roads. In terms of public works, the state's planning is also not great. They first build a road then dig it up to lay water or gas or electricity or telephone lines.
   

Traffic management failures -
The police in this report, has conveniently bypassed their own failures and lack foresight.

1. Firstly, there are three major kinds of police (not an exhaustive type) - Kolkata Traffic Police or KTP, Bidhan Nagar City Police or BNCP, West Bengal Traffic Police or WBTP. Each have their own Tughalqi rules, that keep ever-changing.
   
   
2. For example, within a short distance you may see different speed limit signages. How is a driver constantly supposed to be mindful of frequently changing speed limits?
   
   
3. Unmarked speed-breakers, faded stop-lines are the order of the day. And yet you will be fined for not adhering to stop-lines.
   
   
4. Traffic signals are poorly timed. In Delhi, I have seen that once the light goes from green to yellow, there will be a 5-count timer, before it goes to red. It helps cars to brake smoothly. In Kolkata, traffic lights going from green to yellow to red may happen in a second, sometimes even skipping the yellow light altogether. In main areas like Kankurgachi / Phool Bagan, there are signals on circles. So, first you wait to get a right signal and then take the right turn and face a red signal to go straight.
   
   
5. And as if this was not enough, a common practice of WBTP and BNCP (e.g. Haldiram, Birati, Airport crossings) is to leave the signal green and suddenly physically jump infront of the fast lane traffic to stop them to pass pedestrians. I have had sharp conversations with the police on many occasions, was even fined for it.
   
   
6. As soon as you enter West Bengal from either Jharkhand side or the Odisha side, you will know from the telltale "random barricade policing" that you have arrived. BNCP and WBTP use barricades all the time to slow down traffic. So not only are you mindful of the potholes, ditches, undulations, but also of having to veer left or right suddenly or stop altogether owing to the barricades suddenly emerging. Plus they instal barricades on NHs.
   
   
7. Height of traffic lights is not standardised / high enough. So they are not visible from a distance many a times. A high vehicle infront of you, will cause blind spots.
   
   
8. There is a concept of civic-police = quickly-trained, and sometimes too small for their boots (visually), not apparently very sharp. I am not sure how they are qualified, but it was initially started as providing employment to local boys and girls. They had a goonish authority owing to the new uniforms that they received. But of course with the administration coming up with newer rules, their powers have been dressed down a bit.
   

Now for some indicative numbers:

1. My home to workplace is 18 kms - would take me a minimum of 1hr each way. Fuel efficiency in Polo would clock even 7.8 kmpl.
   
   
2. An alternate route is 25 kms (through the Maa Flyover) - takes 45 minutes before rush hour, evening traffic makes it 1.5 hrs, fuel efficiency 9-11 kmpl.
   
   
3. A third route that uses a mix of NHAI and tolls is 42 kms, had become my preferred route in 2023 with fuel efficiency even going up to 16 kmpl, time taken 1 hr 15 minutes tops. Despite warnings that one clog point could be Santragachi that If one happens to get stuck here, it could be stuck for even 2 hrs. But in larger scheme of probability, I have used this route. At present, there is construction in this area, so people are avoiding it on normal days.
   

Impact of all this -

1. High driving stress. I don't know how to benchmark this. But may suffice to say that I have stopped driving out to de-stress like I used to while in the NCR.
   
2. Unnecessary longer drives - For an 8 hour office job, I have sometimes driven for 4 hours which should not take more than 1.5 hrs.
   
3. High fatigue, that results from the drive not from the work/job. Couple this with bad backaches, sciatica flare-ups, knee pain from clutch over-use.
   
4. High anxiety stemming from jam-anxiety - we are always checking maps before going out or during driving as if our life depends on it.
   
5. Low fuel efficiencies - imagine a 42 km NH stretch allowing you to do the same timing as an 18 km in-city road.
   
6. High car wear & tear - a whole new evidence-based reporting needs to be done on on this.
7. Other trivias such as brawls between different kinds of drivers such 2w, 3w, 4w etc.

Are you tired even reading this? We are living it. (With of course some happy denials too).

Calcutta has much potential and many things to do, it is sad that roads have become such a disincentive.

[Schroeter]

Originally Posted by locusjag

What?!

I am shocked. Based on my work visits to Kolkata's salt lake and new town areas in 2018 & 2019, I have been singing paeans to anyone who will listen about how great Kolkata's traffic flow is, with its flyovers, broad and free road conditions.

I guess I was only privy to the "new" Kolkata then.

The funny thing is that the new Kolkata has fewer jams while the new Bengaluru (ORR, Whitefield) is the peak traffic area.

[anjan_c2007]

While not vouching for much faith in the Tom Tom index, logically the traffic situation is quite chaotic during peak hours in Kolkata on several important roads and junctions. This is despite the fact that a large majority of Kolkata commuters do not own any personal vehicles, but rely solely on public transport. And the other factor is that not many large industries as employers have made Kolkata or locations around Kolkata their business hubs during the recent decades.

The traffic has been chaotic since many decades also due to gridlocks owing to traffic indiscipline and "me first" attitude amongst drivers like many other Indian cities. Buses during peak hours tend to overtake other buses rashly on the route to grab more passengers, throwing the entire traffic out of synchronicity. But lately, about 2,185 buses (more than 50% of the strength) were off the roads in Kolkata in 2024, leaving only about 1,900 buses fit to ply.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/comme...nightmare.html (2185 buses in Kolkata, Howrah off the roads in 2024 | Commuters nightmare)

Sometime back, I was travelling by a rickety State Transport bus driven by an elderly, grey haired driver during peak morning office hours. This bus was being blatantly overtaken by both mini and maxi buses and the passengers started yelling. One passenger hollered at the driver in Bengali "this old man has got his age falsely recorded and is still employed."

Back to the topic, Ambassadors constituting 95 % of the cars till about two decades back, have given way to the newer cars, many of which are A, B-1 and B-2 segment hatchbacks that occupy less road space. But their numbers have multiplied and hence the Ambassador's fading numbers has not had much impact. We also have quite many SUV's on the roads that are larger.

[ramki.grandhi]

That's okay, we still hold the world record on number of potholes per km of the road(if that exists). Few points to note:

1. Compared to all cities, we Bangalore people have better civic sense in driving and generally follow the lane discipline as much as we can. Ignore autos and some delivery guys.

2. Apart from potholes, mud roads, poor drainage system, not having walk able footpaths are other reasons for slow traffic.

3. Most of the times city busses have to stop in the middle of the road for dropping and picking the passengers because of not having dedicated bus bays. This adds fuel to the fire.

4. Most of the high rise buildings, malls are constructed without taking the consideration of approach roads or buffers.

5. Been living in Bangalore from 2004, my only way to describe Bangalore is "A large construction zone with pleasant weather, pubs and nice people!"

Overall, most of the problems are man made and fixable, ofcourse we don't. Given that weather is pleasant and #1 from above, overall makes driving in traffic bearable. Trust me, this is coming from me who has been doing WFH from last 6 years

Also note, no one can beat us in the road tax!

[cpabhijit]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Guys,
Let's take this report with a pinch of salt. What the article fails to highlight is the FCD data is archive of GPS data obtained from navigation devices and applications by road users with TomTom devices only.

Is this true? Whoever uses TomTom in India? That they even dared to release a report based on the usage of their devices?? They should've left Indian cities out.

Traffic flow I'd say is way better than BLR. Biggest plus is that the delta is very small. I can get to the airport in 45 mins at 4am and 50mins at 9am and in 1 hr at 7pm. That is a huge gain and the biggest pain for BLR. In BLR, I can get to the airport in 1h 15 min (at best) with 2hrs being the average and the worst it has taken me is 3hrs.

Originally Posted by DogNDamsel12

There! There! Who touched my raw nerve!
[*]The road surface is pathetic. I have forgotten what the right lane/fast lane should feel like, in my last 4 years of living in Kolkata. The entire Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, which is supposed to be the 32-km main road, has humped interspersed patches of about 5 feet in length on the right side. You can never take the right lane to safely overtake or accelerate. I would always stay closer to the traffic in mid-lane. Imagine this is supposed to run from one end of the city to the other.

This is the biggest issue I'd say. The road surface is horrible and unfortunately, it has deteriorated over the last few years. On EM Bypass the speed limit is 60. Early morning, no traffic, try going at 60 and one'll get thrown around like anything. Across the city, travelling in a car is almost like being on a small boat during a storm. Keep bouncing up and down, get thrown sideways continuously. Get on a motorbike and the bounces get converted to solid thwacks to your spinal column, one after another.

[Neversaygbye]

Having lived in Bangalore till 2020 and with my current residence being my hometown of Calcutta, I can say that the TomTom report is justified despite the fact that it is not representationally accurate.

Bangalore has an infrastructure design and maintenance issue where wide roads suddenly end in a narrow two lane road, road surfaces are poorly maintained or go through villages, and footpaths either don't exist or are seldom used due to missing slabs. Plus there is a surfeit of two wheelers and they keep weaving in and out of traffic or drive slowly in the middle or right lane thus holding up traffic. The rapid growth of Bangalore has a lot to do with these challenges and it will take a lot of money to fix even if administrative will was there (which there isn't).

With Calcutta, the issue is man made and mostly intentional - it is poor governance and nothing else. Illegal vanos (diesel engine vans) are given a free run (but we need to pay 10k for a failed PUC), buses have been replaced by EV rickshaws (totos) and the situation is only going to get worse with another 1500 buses slated to go off the roads this year; people have been given free license to encroach upon road space and footpaths and of course, the police finds it easier to put up barricades and then watch their mobiles than manage traffic. A lot of these are entirely by design and benefits certain vested interests that I will not name keeping the forum rules in mind. Of course, replacing buses with totos may help generate additional employment and income for syndicates but in the long run people who can will just buy their own two wheeler rather than pay a fortune for their commute. So we are going to be stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea in the foreseeable future with either of totos or two wheelers choking the roads, or even both, while some vested interests make a killing and the government goes to town about how safe the roads are (since there will be fewer deaths when nothing moves).

I really don't have much hope that things will improve. Which is a pity as till even a few years back Calcutta was rated as the city with the best transport infrastructure in India.