Wipro founder Azim Premji has declined Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s request to allow limited vehicular movement through the company’s Sarjapur campus in Bengaluru, aiming to ease congestion on the Outer Ring Road (ORR).

In his reply, Premji stated that the campus is an exclusive private property belonging to a listed company and is not intended for public thoroughfare.  He flagged legal, governance, and statutory challenges in permitting traffic through private grounds.

He also highlighted that the Sarjapur campus is located in a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), subject to strict access control norms as part of its contractual and compliance obligations.  According to him, opening it to public vehicles would not be a sustainable or effective long-term solution.

Nevertheless, Premji expressed willingness to collaborate with the Karnataka government. He proposed commissioning a holistic, scientific study conducted by urban transport experts to formulate short-, medium-, and long-term solutions for Bengaluru’s mobility crisis.  Wipro has also committed to underwriting a significant portion of the cost of that study.

The CM’s request had been backed by preliminary traffic assessments suggesting that opening the campus might reduce congestion by up to 30 percent along key stretches adjacent to the ORR, especially during peak hours.  Premji countered that the complexity of Bengaluru’s traffic cannot be resolved by a single shortcut or measure, and stressed need for coordinated policy and infrastructure changes.