A Bengaluru traffic jam linked to the Dasara holiday rush left motorists and private bus passengers stranded for as long as six hours on Friday night, with congestion reported across several major roads leading out of the city.
Thousands of residents were travelling to their hometowns as Dasara and Ayudha Puja coincided with the weekend, creating an unusually heavy outbound flow. The Mysuru Road, Tumakuru Road, airport road and Hosur Road were among the main routes affected, according to a report by Deccan Herald.
Traffic moved slowly or remained stalled around Goraguntepalya, the Yeshwanthpur flyover, the ISKCON area and Rajkumar Road. Vehicles and private buses were reported to be lined up for kilometres, while congestion on roads towards Mysuru, Ballari and other destinations added to the pressure on Bengaluru’s intercity connections.
The traffic disruption continued past midnight. Some private buses carrying passengers out of the city reportedly managed to leave only between 3 am and 4 am on Saturday. Travellers who had begun their journeys during the night were consequently unable to reach the city’s outskirts within the expected time.
Light rain during the night further worsened conditions for people waiting in vehicles and for passengers travelling on congested roads. The combination of heavy traffic, wet conditions and the concentration of departures on a limited number of major corridors left motorists facing prolonged delays.
Several frustrated commuters contacted local traffic police stations to seek intervention. The report also cited dissatisfaction among travellers over the absence of effective traffic management on key roads, despite the holiday calendar providing advance notice of a likely increase in outbound movement.
The incident exposed the operational difficulty of handling predictable festival-period travel in a city whose major highways also function as crucial urban corridors. Roads such as Mysuru Road, Tumakuru Road and Hosur Road carry both daily Bengaluru traffic and long-distance vehicles, meaning that a sudden increase in private cars, buses and other vehicles can quickly affect movement well beyond the city’s outer areas.
The congestion also affected passengers who depended on scheduled private bus services to reach neighbouring districts and other parts of Karnataka. When buses remained stuck inside the city for several hours, the disruption extended beyond individual motorists to the wider intercity transport network.
The reported traffic build-up occurred during a concentrated travel window created by consecutive holidays and the weekend. The affected routes and junctions included some of Bengaluru’s most heavily used links to surrounding districts, making the disruption significant for both residents leaving the city and traffic moving through its northern, southern and western approaches.
The Deccan Herald report did not provide details of a specific revised traffic plan, diversion schedule or official explanation for the scale of the delays. It reported that commuters sought assistance from traffic police stations as congestion continued into the early hours of Saturday.
