Hyderabad vs Bangalore: Viral X Post on City’s Bad Roads Sparks Criticism and Humour

Bangalore has the worst roads in India, fumed a user on X (formerly Twitter), after it took him over 1 hour and 45 minutes to travel from Bellandur to Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) — a distance of about 48 kilometres.

The user, Naresh, wrote, “Traveled from Bellandur to Bengaluru airport just now. It took 1 hour 45 minutes! Insane. The roads are dug up and full of potholes. Sorry to say, but I think Bangalore has the worst roads in India. This is not sustainable. It will cause health problems for commuters in the next 10 years.”

The post sparked frustration and sarcasm on X.

Former Infosys CEO Mohandas Pai blamed “bad governance” for the poor state of Bengaluru’s roads. Tagging Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and Congress MP Priyank Kharge, he wrote, “This is not the result of growth but of corruption and bad governance. Please help @GBA_office @GBAChiefComm. Can’t we have roads without potholes? This is not AI work — it’s been done for over 200 years.”

Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw also took strong exception to the condition of Bengaluru’s roads, questioning why there was no political urgency to fix them.

“It doesn’t take more than focus, budgetary allocation, and execution. A billion dollars needs to be ring-fenced for this,” she said, tagging Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, D.K. Shivakumar, and Priyank Kharge.

Naresh’s post soon turned into a Bengaluru vs Hyderabad debate. He mentioned that he lives in Hyderabad and wrote in a follow-up post, “Bangalore guys, I love your city, been visiting since the 70s, but you need to fix your roads and commute times. See travel time now in Hyderabad — 1 hour for 40 km into the heart of the city.”

Responses poured in, with some expressing anger and others resorting to humour.

One user said Hyderabad “is 10x better.”

Another wrote, “Bangalore is not a grid. It’s a collection of dead ends connected by bad roads. There’s only one way to go from any point A to B. What needs to be done is beyond our politicians’ capacity — turn the city into a grid by demolishing dead ends. But like Snow White’s seven dwarves, they love digging holes, trenches, and tunnels. Follow the money.”

Another user suggested that depopulation was the only solution, while one noted that work-from-home policies could ease traffic congestion — but “politicians won’t allow it as it hurts real estate.”

User Chandra Gaur shared his experience: “It takes more than two hours on average from the airport to Bellandur. On my worst day, it took 3 to 3.5 hours. Only time I got lucky was between 2 to 6 am.”

Interestingly, one user remarked that 1 hour 45 minutes to cover 50 km “wasn’t too bad” for a dense city like Bengaluru, though “the potholes are unacceptable.”

The Karnataka government faced renewed criticism over the issue, weeks after BlackRock announced plans to move out of its Bellandur office on the Outer Ring Road (ORR), citing poor road and commuting conditions.

Amid mounting anger, Deputy CM Shivakumar issued an ultimatum and set November 2025 as the deadline to repair all potholes in Bengaluru.