Overview

• A Reddit post by user @Glittering-Pen-9502 went viral on July 7, lamenting Bengaluru’s descent from a tech paradise to ‘decaying ruins’ amid chaotic traffic and pothole-ridden roads.
• A separate outburst on X condemned recent driver-union bans on bike taxis, Uber and Ola as ‘mafia nonsense,’ highlighting escalating tensions between unions and ride-hail platforms.
• Commuters report three-hour journeys for 12-kilometer trips, surge pricing spikes and app failures following the bike-taxi ban and new restrictions on aggregators.
• The city has lacked an elected Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike council since 2019, leaving infrastructure funding and planning stalled under appointed administrators.
• Despite booming tech parks and touted smart-city initiatives, residents say unfinished roads and abandoned tunnel proposals reveal misaligned urban priorities.