He noted that Bengaluru had one of the world’s largest populations of tech professionals, which threw up its own set of challenges. With a headcount of around 2.5 million, Bengaluru had far more tech pros than California, and about a million+ worked just around the Outer Ring Road (ORR).
“We want to shorten the travel time of people, and we have a strategy for that,” Shivakumar said in a chat with the media at Cubbon Park on Sunday.
The deputy CM said he had successful discussions with industry leaders, including Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and venture capitalist Mohandas Pai, on Saturday night. “I have told them that we will work together for Bengaluru. They have agreed.”
The meeting comes after a social media war between Shaw, Pai, and other business leaders, and the state’s ministers, which ended with both sides greeting each other on Deepavali. Shivakumar requested industry leaders to weigh their thoughts before criticising the city on social media as “any (negative) news about Bengaluru would become world news.”
“We had a very constructive meeting with the Deputy CM to agree to an action plan to fix key infra bottlenecks in roads, ORR, PRR (Peripheral Ring Road), drainage, traffic n garbage,” the Biocon founder posted on X. “A public dashboard on progress of projects will be shared,” she added. Pai said, “We look to the future with hope.”
Plans for ORR
Shivakumar said that he had big plans for ORR and has asked IT / BT (biotechnology) minister Priyank Kharge to meet with the CEOs of companies housed along the ORR ahead of the Bengaluru Tech Summit, scheduled for November 18-20. He said he will also visit ORR soon.
The ORR stretch between Silk Board and Hebbal is home to 500-plus tech companies and startups including Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, Accenture, and Wipro, and business parks such as Embassy Tech Village, RMZ Ecoworld, and Manyata Tech Park, making it the most congested area in Bengaluru. The region boasts annual exports worth more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
Wipro founder Azim Premji had recently suggested that chief minister Siddaramaiah commission an expert study to come up with solutions to decongest the ORR, while expressing his inability to open a part of Wipro’s Sarjapur campus to traffic due to legal and governance challenges. He also offered to fund a significant part of the expenses of such a study.
