A Reddit put up from a Bengaluru tech skilled has reignited debate round one of many metropolis’s oldest afflictions — site visitors. However this time, it is not nearly highway rage or misplaced time. The put up frames congestion as a “hidden tax” on productiveness, sparking widespread resonance throughout social media and amongst India’s tech workforce. In a metropolis that powers the nation’s digital economic system, the price of commuting could also be greater than ever.
The unique put up, shared by a techie who lives in JP Nagar and works alongside the Outer Ring Highway, lays naked the lived actuality behind Bengaluru’s notorious gridlock. Although his workplace is simply 14 kilometers away, his commute stretches to 90 minutes every method — a threefold improve over what ought to be a half-hour journey.
Regardless of incomes ₹28 lakh yearly (excluding RSUs), he calculates that between ₹6.5 lakh in earnings tax and ₹1.4 lakh in GST, he offers away greater than three months of his time to the federal government. Add to that the two.5 months spent sitting in site visitors, and he estimates practically six months of his yr are misplaced to what he calls “seen and invisible taxes.”
The frustration extends past private inconvenience. “Taxes are alleged to fund higher roads and smarter cities,” he wrote. “However the result’s mismanaged planning and roads that punish us each day.”
The put up has struck a chord on-line. One Reddit person commented, “In case you put a Bangalore engineer in a international metropolis with clear air and no site visitors, they’d be 20% extra environment friendly — with no different modifications.”
One other person pointed to overcrowding: “Everyone seems to be dashing to Bangalore like bees and anticipating Dubai-like infrastructure. Why not push funding into tier-2 cities as an alternative?”
Others highlighted civic conduct as a part of the issue. “Unlawful parking on service roads creates half these bottlenecks,” one wrote, calling out hotspots like Marathahalli and Kadubeesanahalli.
Whereas Bengaluru continues to put on the badge of India’s Silicon Valley, its infrastructure struggles to maintain tempo.
