The 25-minute, half-mile commute
Karunakaran lives about a kilometer (.62 miles) from his office, but it takes him about 20 to 25 minutes to get to work here.
"Although you drive 100 miles per hour, you drive for 45 minutes to half an hour. What is the difference if I drive 10 kilometers an hour but arrive at the same time?" he asked, rhetorically, of local driving conditions.
"Infrastructure" is a word a visitor hears quite a bit in Bangalore. The growth of the IT industry in the last five years has brought a huge surge of residents, cars, pollution and congestion.
For a visitor, it means budgeting at least 45 minutes for each cab ride, and carefully planning hotel reservations, as well. Bangalore has an impressive number of five-star hotels. The Taj West End is a 19th-century palace with eight acres of gardens. The Leela Palace teems with staff members standing by, waiting to open doors for you. Visiting U.S. venture capitalists hang out at the Oberoi.
Unfortunately, demand outstrips supply and even getting a hotel room near the bus station can be tricky. And the prices are now about what a U.S. hotel would cost.
So the latest solution is the plane. Foreigners stay in five star hotels in Chennai, about 180 miles away, and fly in for the morning, said Sridhar Mitta, CEO of E4E, a services company doing about $40 million a year for U.S. companies. While the best Bangalore hotels go for around $450 per night, similar rooms in Chennai can be found for about $100, he said.
