Google showed a stretch that would generally take 5–10 minutes to travel took 45 minutes, according to Dr Govind Nandakumar. (Video capture)
A video of a doctor in Bengaluru running for three kilometres to finish a surgery on time went viral on social media. Gastroenterology surgeon Dr Govind Nandakumar of Manipal Hospital in Sarjapur had to sprint to the operating room, to reach in time.
“My home in Cunningham Road is 30-45 minutes away from Sarjapur on average. On Tuesday, August 30, there was a backup of vehicles. Google indicated that it would take 45 minutes to complete the final stretch, whereas it usually only takes 5–10 minutes. The traffic would not have moved even if I had waited for another five to ten minutes. It was crucial for the patient and those waiting for care that I got started on time with the laparoscopy procedure I had to perform that day. In a video, the doctor said, “I left my car with my driver and ran about three kilometres to the hospital.
Basavaraj Bommai, the chief minister of Karnataka, had earlier declared that a decision had been made to establish a body to control traffic density in Bengaluru, a city with over 10 million vehicles and a population of about 12 million.
Bommai stated that a bill to this effect would be introduced in the upcoming session of the state legislature following a meeting with Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari.
Bengaluru beat out 415 other cities in 57 countries to take first place on this list, according to a 2019 report by TomTom, a global provider of navigation, traffic, and map products with headquarters in the Netherlands.
According to TomTom’s ninth edition report, “Bengaluru takes the top spot this year with drivers in the South Indian city expecting to spend an additional 71% of travel time stuck in traffic.”
According to the real-time tracking system, Bengaluru is currently experiencing 291 traffic jams totalling 145.7 km.
The report claims that Bengalureans are stuck in traffic for 243 hours, or ten days and 3 hours. Bengalureans could have planted 244 trees, watched 215 episodes of Game of Thrones, or watched 139 football games at the same time, according to the report.
