'No single solution for Bengaluru traffic': Azim Premji rejects Siddaramaiah's proposal to open Wipro campus road for public

Wipro founder Azim Premji has turned down a proposal from Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to open the company’s private Sarjapur campus road to the public as a measure to ease growing traffic congestion on Bengaluru’s Outer Ring Road (ORR).

In a letter responding to Siddaramaiah, Premji said that due to the complexity of the problem, there is unlikely to be a "single point solution or a silver bullet to resolve it". He also thanked Siddaramaiah for acknowledging Wipro’s contributions to Karnataka and recognised the urgency of the situation along the Outer Ring Road.

Premji stated: "The Sarjapur campus is private property and part of a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) providing services to global clients." He emphasised that the campus’s status within an SEZ, as well as obligations to international clients, underpin the need for strict access controls.

Highlighting the limitations of the proposal, Premji explained that "contractual obligations mandate strict access control, and allowing public use of the campus would not offer a sustainable, long-term solution."

While the company has declined to open its campus to public traffic, it has reaffirmed its support for collaborative, expert-led approaches to tackle the city’s transportation challenges. He also cited a range of legal, governance, and statutory challenges that prevent such a move, while affirming Wipro’s commitment to collaborating on broader solutions for the city’s traffic woes.

He wrote: "Such an exercise would allow us to develop a holistic roadmap of effective solutions that are implementable in the short, medium, and long term. To demonstrate our commitment to being a part of the solution, Wipro will be pleased to engage in this process and underwrite a significant portion of the cost for this expert study."

Read Azim Premji's letter to Siddaramaiah here

Meanwhile, Bengaluru, long infamous for gridlock, now ranks among the world’s slowest cities to commute through. By September 2025, traffic woes have only deepened, driven by the return of office commutes after hybrid work, relentless construction across the city, and a rapidly growing number of vehicles on the road.

Moreover, the Bengaluru traffic police and Cars24 have installed an AI-powered billboard at the Trinity Circle as a pilot project. The AI-powered billboard will display pending traffic violation fines and lapsed PUC certificates in real-time.