Kolkata overtook Bengaluru to become India's most congested city in 2024, as per the list released by Dutch location technology specialist TomTom.

Bengaluru has been topping the chart for the past several years.

The data released by TomTom showed drivers in Kolkata needed an average of 34 minutes and 33 seconds to cover a distance of 10 km last year.

On the contrary, drivers in Bengaluru, the IT hub of India, cross a 10 km distance in  34 minutes and 10 seconds. 

Globally, Barranquilla in Colombia topped the chart of the city with the lowest average speed.

The average speed over the year is 10.3 mph, which means that it takes almost 35 minutes on average to complete a simple 6-mile journey.

Three Indian cities feature in the top 5 list of slowest cities.

London, the first European city in the ranking, is in 5th position, with an average speed of 11.2 mph in the city.

Yet the English capital is only 150th in the congestion ranking, which measures only the dynamic factors of slow speed.

“The combination of population and economic growth is putting significant strain on our transportation networks,” said Ralf-Peter Schäfer, Vice President of Traffic, TomTom. “Outdated infrastructure and inefficient road planning fail to keep pace with demand. Additionally, the surge in e-commerce has led to a rise in freight traffic, further complicating the situation. Without a shift towards more regulation and sustainable transportation options, we risk worsening congestion that impacts everyone in our cities.”