A heavy Monday morning rush brought traffic on the Chandapura stretch to a standstill for several hours, with vehicles returning to Bengaluru after the long weekend adding to the congestion. Office-goers said they were stuck from around 7 a.m., while some school students reached school nearly three hours late. 

Many people who had travelled towards Hosur on Friday night for the long weekend began returning to Bengaluru on Monday morning as offices and schools reopened. This added to the usual morning rush on the already congested stretch. 

Rajesh K., a resident of the area, said he left home at 7 a.m. expecting traffic but was still delayed by nearly two hours. “Even two-wheelers had no space to move,” he said. 

Residents told The Hindu that the stretch has been seeing heavy traffic for some time due to ongoing road work and poor road conditions, which have slowed down traffic. The situation was worse on Monday morning, they said. 

School students were also caught in the traffic, with some having examinations on Monday. Residents said school buses and vans were stuck for hours and could not take other routes. The traffic was further affected by the narrow stretch near the railway track, where police and civic workers were clearing stagnant rainwater. The work took up part of the already narrow road and added to the traffic. 

Traffic police were deployed to regulate the movement of vehicles and clear the bottleneck. The police said it took more than two hours for traffic movement to return to normal. 

A traffic police officer said the existing two-lane stretch near the railway track needs to be widened to four lanes to prevent traffic from building up. “Widening the road from two lanes to four lanes at the railway track would significantly ease traffic movement and prevent such bottlenecks,” the officer said. 

After exhausting all options, a Bengaluru commuter has now turned to artificial intelligence (AI) to generate a song titled Tax Me to request the government to build decent road infrastructure in the city.

The song about Bengaluru’s road infrastructure takes a tongue-in-cheek swipe at the city’s traffic, potholes, flooding, construction, and the endless digging of its roads. The song demands a basic for a city that the Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar says is being viewed internationally: a road that can simply be driven on.

Daily experience to song

Punit Vara, a 34-year-old techie residing near Choodasandra, who uploaded the song on YouTube, said that the song, including its lyrics, was completely AI-generated. It features Doddamara Road, which falls under the Anekal Assembly constituency, represented by A. Shivanna.

“For the past nine months, I drove my pregnant wife on Doddamara Road, which is in a pathetic condition, for regular doctor visits. I had to be extra careful, and it was highly dangerous, which prompted me to come up with this song,” he said. “Besides, I also drive on this road everday,” he added. Mr. Vara said he used his daily experiences of travelling on the road as prompts for generative AI, which came up with the lyrics. He later used another AI model to generate the song using the lyrics, he said.

Mr. Vara terms the song a satire anthem dedicated to every techie, parent, auto driver and commuter surviving Bengaluru’s “moonscape streets” every single day.

Potholes, traffic, construction

For many Bengalureans, the morning commute begins with a familiar ritual, which starts with checking the map, looking at the estimated travel time, and then adding a generous margin for the traffic that the maps could not possibly have accounted for. Now, that daily frustration has found a soundtrack.

“Pothole number 27,” a lyric in the song, takes a dig at the pathetic condition of Doddamara Road in the southeastern outskirts of Bengaluru, which is not very different from the other city roads. 

“I pay my income tax. I pay my GST,” the song says, before listing the many other charges that accompany everyday life. The complaint, the song says, is not about wanting “gold-plated roads” or a perfect city. It is about basic infrastructure, including roads without potholes, sidewalks that can be walked on, buses that actually arrive, and streets that do not disappear under water during the monsoon.

Capturing the experience of navigating city’s roads with multiple projects on, the song says: “Metro above me. Digging below, flyover beside me. Nobody knows where to go.” The line captures the geography of a city, where construction seems endless.

 
Mderate rainfall on Saturday morning again led to waterlogging in various parts of the national capital, with residents wading through knee-deep water and traffic slowing to a crawl. Chief Minister Rekha Gupta conducted a surprise inspection of waterlogged areas near Sadbhavna Park in east Delhi and directed officials to deploy pumps to clear accumulated water.

The Chief Minister emphasised that all departments concerned must work with “complete promptness and coordination” to ensure Delhi residents do not face inconvenience due to rainfall.

Waterlogging was reported from several key locations, including National Highway 48 near Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, Mahipalpur, and Sangam Vihar.

On Saturday morning, Delhi Police said in a post on X that due to “continuous heavy rainfall, severe waterlogging” was affecting traffic movement on Road No. 210, particularly between Rotary Chowk-DJB Chowk/Office and towards Omaxe in Dwarka.

Several parts of the city, including the international and domestic terminals of the Delhi airport, witnessed heavy waterlogging on Friday as well.

In light of the upcoming BRICS summit next week on September 12 and 13, senior officials from the Delhi government also inspected the route from Bharat Mandapam, where the summit is set to take place, to IGI Airport to identify any potential issues.

“Light to moderate rain accompanied by thunderstorm/lightning occurred at most places and heavy rain at isolated places over Delhi during the past 24 hours,” the Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a statement.

The Safdarjung weather station, which is considered the city’s representative observatory, recorded 37.3 mm of rainfall in 24 hours ending 8.30 a.m. on Saturday and 29.8 mm of rainfall from then till 5.30 p.m., officials said.

Light to moderate rainfall is expected on Sunday as well, according to the IMD.

Rain batters Gurugram

In Gurugram, heavy rain provided a much-needed relief from the humid conditions, but it also caused significant waterlogging in several areas, halting the city’s usual pace.

Traffic remained slow from Sarhaul Border to Rajiv Chowk, with 36 mm of rainfall recorded within just one hour.

Roads become ponds after a short spell of rain: Cong.

The Congress on Saturday said the party is worried that waterlogging, bad roads, traffic jams and rain water entering the Delhi airport in the run-up to the BRICS summit will tarnish the country’s image.

General secretary (organisation), Delhi unit, Anil Bhardwaj alleged, “After a brief spell of rain, Delhi gets submerged, roads become ponds and there are traffic jams for long hours. If the Delhi government fails to find a permanent solution to the waterlogging problem, it will tarnish the image of the country’s capital during the BRICS summit in front of the whole world.”

Heavy rain accompanied by strong winds and thunderstorms lashed Visakhapatnam on Saturday night (June 20, 2026). Although the rain provided respite from the heat, many low-lying areas were inundated, disrupting traffic and causing widespread inconvenience to the commuters.

Several parts of the core city witnessed heavy downpours, resulting in waterlogging on major roads and overflowing drains. Beach Road, one of the city’s busiest stretches, was waterlogged at several points, making commuting difficult for motorists and pedestrians. The green mats laid out for the Yogandhra event scheduled on Beach Road on Sunday (June 21) were reportedly washed away.

Water stagnation was also reported from One Town, Maharanipeta, China Waltair, Gajuwaka, Seethammadhara, MVP Colony and several other localities. Rainwater also entered the III Town Police Station premises.

Stormwater drains in several localities overflowed due to the intensity of the rain, leading to flooding on roads and junctions.

Traffic moved at a snail’s pace on several roads as vehicles cautiously negotiated through waterlogged stretches. Residents in low-lying areas faced difficulties as rainwater accumulated on streets and near residential colonies. Pedestrians were also forced to take detours in many places due to inundated roads.

According to rainfall data available on the government portal, the Jail Area recorded the highest rainfall in the city with 56 mm, followed by Seethammadhara with 53 mm. RK Beach received 47.08 mm rainfall, while Anandapuram recorded 24.5 mm.

Delhi Police Commissioner Satish Golchha has directed all senior officers to avoid office work and in-house meetings between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., and instead focus exclusively on field duties to enhance safety, security, and traffic management across the city.

The directive follows a meeting earlier this week between Delhi Lieutenant Governor T.S. Sandhu and the Police Commissioner.

In a circular issued to all Joint Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners of Police, the Commissioner emphasised increased foot patrolling to strengthen police visibility and improve public safety. Senior officers of both the Delhi Police and Traffic Police have been asked to remain in the field during the specified hours.

As part of the initiative, officers will conduct joint foot patrols on Saturdays, Sundays, and two additional days each week between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. The patrols will focus on clearing road obstructions, easing traffic congestion, and ensuring smoother vehicular movement.

The circular said officers would also engage with residents’ welfare associations, market welfare associations, traders, and local residents to address security and traffic-related concerns.

The exercise aims to strengthen visible policing, improve direct public interaction, and ensure prompt resolution of local issues, including the removal of temporary encroachments and obstructions.

Officers have been instructed to identify vulnerable locations, inspect public places and congestion-prone stretches, and take action against illegal parking and misuse of road space. They have also been asked to coordinate with civic agencies for immediate redress of issues.

Districts will maintain records of each patrol, including details of officers on duty, public interactions, and enforcement action taken under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and other laws.

Weekly compliance reports, along with photographs and videography of the patrols, must be submitted every Monday to the Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) and the Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic Management Division).

The circular added that any lapse in compliance, casual approach, or delay in submission of reports would be viewed seriously.

Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Thursday said the Centre and the Delhi government are jointly undertaking a series of large-scale road and connectivity projects to ease congestion and improve mobility across the National Capital Region (NCR).

She said a 17-km, six-lane corridor under the Urban Extension Road-II (UER-II)-Delhi-Dehradun Expressway link project will be developed at a cost of ₹3,500 crore.

The project, currently in the alignment finalisation stage, is expected to ease traffic on key routes, with construction likely to begin by December 2026, read a statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office.

Ms. Gupta said the 20-km AIIMS-Mahipalpur-Gurugram elevated corridor, estimated to cost ₹5,000 crore, will provide signal-free connectivity and reduce congestion on key stretches.

Construction is expected to begin by April 2027.

She added that the proposed 8-km Shiv Murti-Nelson Mandela Marg tunnel and a 17-km link to the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra corridor will further decongest roads and improve connectivity.

The projects are expected to significantly improve freight movement, reduce traffic pressure, and enhance overall transport efficiency, officials said.