Synopsis- India’s city commuters face extreme site visitors congestion, with cities like Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Pune rating among the many worst globally. The article highlights the important thing causes of this disaster and the efforts being made to enhance site visitors administration in 10 main cities.
The city commuters in India expertise among the lowest speeds in site visitors worldwide with some cities reported to take greater than half-hour to journey a distance of 10 kilometers. Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Pune are additionally among the many worst and all showcase the state of affairs of fast urbanization, lack of correct infrastructure and elevated automobiles. The article talks about 10 cities having Slowest transferring site visitors in India.
1. Kolkata, West Bengal

- Major Causes: Kolkata is congested as a result of a mix of its overcrowded business zones, the small colonial period roads, which aren’t nicely suited to deal with heavy site visitors, and the very best car to street ratio within the nation. The infrastructure of town is of British origin and a lot of the arterial roads can’t help the variety of automobiles within the metropolis.
- Influence: Site visitors delays end in commuters losing greater than 110 hours a 12 months, which is a giant burden on productiveness and life high quality. The financial affect will not be solely restricted to lack of time but in addition better gas consumption and prices of car upkeep.
- Authorities Measures: The state authorities has been eager on enhancing transport by guaranteeing that buses are improved and the enlargement of the metro is being accomplished repeatedly. There’s the implementation of site visitors administration by bettering sign coordination and digital monitoring programs.
2. Bengaluru, Karnataka


- Key Causes: The Silicon Valley of India is experiencing a critical congestion as the expansion of the IT sector is much exceeding the event of infrastructure. Expertise parks which are clustered round explicit places end in peak-hour bottlenecks and the continual building of the metro introduces momentary inconveniences.
- Influence: The IT sector alone incurs losses of round 7,000 crore per 12 months, and the whole financial affect is 20,000 crore per 12 months. Site visitors jam influences the work-life stability and reduces the productiveness of the staff significantly.
- Authorities Initiatives: Clever Transport Techniques (ITS) and Bangalore Site visitors Enchancment Undertaking (BTRAC) have demonstrated to be efficient within the space of data-based site visitors administration. The town is rising the metro protection and adopting AI-based site visitors lights.
3. Pune, Maharashtra


- Key Causes: Pune has grown swiftly as an IT and schooling centre and its city planners have been unable to maintain up. The previous city infrastructure is discovering it troublesome to serve the rising variety of automobiles and poor street planning is likely one of the causes that trigger bottlenecks.
- Influence: The commuters within the metropolis are dropping 108 hours yearly to site visitors congestion that impacts their productiveness and private time. The financial price entails greater prices of transport and decreased enterprise effectivity.
- Authorities Measures: The municipal governments are adopting clever site visitors management and growing transport programs. Widening of roads and building of flyovers are being undertaken to resolve the primary congestion areas.
4. Hyderabad, Telangana


- Main Causes: Hyderabad experiences the rising variety of automobiles due to the fast inhabitants development and the event of the IT trade, regardless of the development of metro and flyovers. The pattern within the possession of non-public automobiles has elevated the extent of congestion.
- Influence: Commuters waste 85 hours yearly in site visitors and the present building works exacerbate the state of affairs. The town’s enterprise districts expertise extreme peak-hour congestion.
- Authorities measures: H-CITI programme of seven,032 crore funding in 38 initiatives is to resolve the site visitors jam by use of grade separators, flyovers, and tunnel corridors. The typical journey speeds are to be raised to 15kmph to 35kmph.
5. Chennai, Tamil Nadu


- Key Causes: City sprawl and industrial hall growth have developed junction bottlenecks across the metropolis. The coastal geography of Chennai restricts the selection of enlargement and it’s compelled to develop alongside crowded corridors.
- Influence: 94 hours of annual delays by the commuters are skilled within the metropolis and extra urbanization is consuming the valuable agricultural and forest land. Environmental points within the metropolitan area are aggravated by site visitors jams.
- Authorities Measures: Infrastructure is geared in the direction of the event of arterial roads and the connectivity of transportation to the individuals. There are sensible site visitors administration programs to handle the timing of alerts and scale back delays.
Additionally learn: 7 Quickest Rising Infrastructure Areas in Bangalore in 2025 – The place Ought to You Make investments?
6. Mumbai, Maharashtra


- Key Causes: Though town has a big rail system, the variety of private automobiles in Mumbai nonetheless exceeds the capability of the roads. The linear geography of town concentrates the site visitors in a number of north-south corridors, forming constant bottlenecks.
- Influence: Site visitors congestion prices commuters 103 hours a 12 months by way of time misplaced in site visitors jams, which is a large burden to the monetary capital of India. The financial price extends to enterprise operations and logistics effectivity all through the metropolitan space.
- Authorities Measures: Sensible Site visitors Administration System in Mumbai has managed to chop down the height hour congestion by 30%. Technological options to the issue are the Coastal Street mission and the CCTV-based adaptive sign management programs.
7. Ahmedabad, Gujarat


- Key Causes: Site visitors points in Ahmedabad are fuelled by rising the variety of automobiles and an absence of street capability within the arterials. The business and cultural heart of town is an element that attracts rising volumes of site visitors that surpasses the infrastructure.
- Influence: The loss in productiveness yearly is as much as 73 hours per commuter, which impacts enterprise efficiency and private time.
- Authorities Measures: Municipal authorities are setting up street capability and enhancements in public transportation. Sensible site visitors administration initiatives focus on the optimization of the out there infrastructure.
8. Ernakulam, Kerala


- Principal Causes: The excessive variety of vacationers and the inadequacy of roads result in steady congestion within the enterprise hub of Kerala. The topography and underdeveloped street system within the metropolis worsen the state of affairs in site visitors administration.
- Influence: Site visitors congestion prices commuters 88 hours per 12 months in time wasted in site visitors jams, and the affect of tourism-related site visitors introduces seasonal change to each the sample of congestion and the timing of delays. It has an financial impact on such necessary sectors as tourism and port.
- Authorities Measures: Infrastructure developments are geared toward rising the capability of roads and bettering the administration of site visitors flows. There’s elevated connectivity of public transport to attenuate reliance on private automobiles.
9. Jaipur, Rajasthan


- Key Causes: Outdated Metropolis slim lanes and markets kind important bottlenecks and the vacationer site visitors contributes to congestion throughout peak seasons. The heritage constraints prohibit the alternatives of infrastructure enlargement.
- Influence: Yearly, the lack of time quantities to 83 hours per commuter affecting residents and the tourism trade. There’s excessive congestion reported throughout night rush hours between 5-7 PM.
- Authorities Measures: Infrastructure enhancements are being accomplished, that are heritage delicate and the emphasis is on the administration of site visitors across the historic locations. They’ve parking programs out there to the overall inhabitants and site visitors diversion programs to cope with congestion attributable to vacationers.
10. New Delhi, Delhi


- Main Causes: Regardless of the intensive metro networks, steady building, intrusions and excessive volumes of site visitors current persistent points. Site visitors is combined and has quite a lot of car varieties that complicate site visitors administration.
- Influence: 76 hours of productiveness loss per commuter is noticed within the nationwide capital. The incidences of street rage might be seen incessantly at peak occasions.
- Authorities Measures: The 100 day motion plan entails restore work on 54 main street stretches with a complete of 120 kilometers of size, ₹51,000 crore is to be allotted to the arterial street infrastructure growth and the Golden line metro extension is predicted to boost the airport connectivity by March 2026.
High 10 Indian Cities with Slowest Site visitors in 2024-25
Metropolis | State | International Rank | Journey Time per 10 km | Annual Hours Misplaced | Key Site visitors Points |
Kolkata | West Bengal | #2 | 34 min 33 sec | 110 hours | Slim colonial roads, highest vehicle-to-road ratio |
Bengaluru | Karnataka | #3 | 34 min 10 sec | 117 hours | IT sector development, metro building, concentrated tech parks |
Pune | Maharashtra | #4 | 33 min 22 sec | 108 hours | Speedy IT/schooling hub enlargement, insufficient planning |
Hyderabad | Telangana | #18 | 31 min 30 sec | 85 hours | Inhabitants development, IT enlargement, ongoing building |
Chennai | Tamil Nadu | #31 | 30 min 20 sec | 94 hours | City sprawl, industrial corridors, coastal geography limits |
Mumbai | Maharashtra | #39 | 29 min 26 sec | 103 hours | Restricted north-south corridors, excessive personal car quantity |
Ahmedabad | Gujarat | #43 | 29 min 3 sec | 73 hours | Rising car possession, inadequate arterial capability |
Ernakulam | Kerala | #50 | 28 min 30 sec | 88 hours | Vacationer inflow, restricted street community, geography constraints |
Jaipur | Rajasthan | #52 | 28 min 28 sec | 83 hours | Slim previous metropolis lanes, vacationer site visitors, heritage constraints |
New Delhi | Delhi | #122 | 23 min 24 sec | 76 hours | Building, encroachments, combined site visitors circumstances |
Supply: Tom Tom Site visitors Index 2024
Last Ideas
The site visitors congestion disaster in India is likely one of the greatest city issues of the twenty first century as three cities are listed among the many high 5 within the worst site visitors circumstances on a world stage and financial losses are within the billions per 12 months. The disaster requires a concerted effort of each authorities packages and citizen duty, a mixture of infrastructure funding with behavioral change and technological innovation.
Written by Prajwal Hegde