Bengaluru is reeling from fresh criticism after BlackBuck, a prominent truck technology firm, announced its departure from the city’s congested Outer Ring Road (ORR) area. On Tuesday, co-founder and CEO Rajesh Kumar Yabaji took to X (formerly Twitter) to share the company’s decision, citing the “tough commute” and “bad traffic conditions” faced by his employees.
Yabaji’s post explained the drastic step, stating, “ORR (Bellandur) has been our office + home for nine years, but it was getting very hard to continue. We have decided to move out.”
He elaborated on the challenges, revealing that the average one-way commute for his team had ballooned to over 1.5 hours. He criticized the “roads full of potholes and dust” and the perceived “lowest intent to get them rectified,” expressing pessimism about any improvements within the next five years.
The announcement quickly drew sharp reactions from prominent figures. Mohandas Pai, former Infosys CFO, responded on X, calling it a “Big big failure of governance in Bengaluru.” He directly appealed to Bengaluru Development Minister and Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, stating, “Please see, cos are moving out of ORR. Situation beyond hope. Please intervene.” Pai also urged IT Minister Priyank Kharge and Greater Bengaluru Authority Commissioner M. Maheswar Rao to step in.
Adding her voice to the growing concern, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder of Biocon, stressed the gravity of the situation on X: “This is serious. Emergency measures needed to fix these issues.” She reiterated the call for Deputy Chief Minister Shivakumar to implement urgent solutions for the city’s debilitating traffic congestion and infrastructure problems.
Yabaji’s candid post garnered significant attention, accumulating over 871,000 views. A particularly striking comment from a viewer highlighted the perceived discrepancy: “Great decision. Plus, real estate is massively overvalued in that entire stretch (ORR). Builders are asking more than the current prices of Chicago and Dubai for the infrastructure of Somalia.”
The ORR region has experienced a dramatic surge in traffic this year, largely attributed to companies enforcing mandatory office attendance after an extended period of hybrid and remote work models.
An Invitation from Andhra Pradesh
The local Bengaluru infrastructure debate swiftly escalated into an inter-state competition, with Andhra Pradesh’s IT Minister, Nara Lokesh, extending an immediate invitation to BlackBuck’s CEO, Rajesh Kumar Yabaji, in response to his infrastructure complaints.
“Hi Rajesh, can I interest you in relocating your company to Vizag? We are rated among top 5 cleanest cities in India, are building best-in-class infra, and have been rated the safest city for women. Please send me a DM,” the minister has said in a post on X.