Global congestion indices have risen from 20% to 25%: CAG

Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) K. Sanjay Murthy, on Thursday said that global congestion indices had risen from 20% to 25 % as of 2025 costing each urban commuter between 100 and 180 hours of productive time every year.

Mr. Murthy, who was speaking at the 5th BRICS Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) Leaders’ Summit here, said that urban mobility failed not for want of roads or rails, but for want of systems that worked together.

“We build metro lines that don’t connect to bus networks. We build flyovers that merely shift congestion. We measure outputs, km of road laid, stations built, rather than outcomes: did commute times fall? Did air quality improve? Did inequality in access reduce?” Mr. Murthy said.

On Indian cities, he said that our cities today occupied just 3% of our land, yet they contributed 60% of our national GDP.

“By 2030, 70% of all new jobs in India will be created in cities. According to the UN, more than 50% of India’s population will live in our cities and towns by 2050,” he said.

He added that the CAG was conducting a special audit of 101 Indian cities, assessing Ease of Living from the citizen’s perspective, across quality of life, access, sustainability and perception.

“And we are auditing multi-modal transport and first-mile, last-mile logistics, in partnership with institutions like Indian Institute of Technology and Indian Institute of Management and with the World Bank,” he added.

Convened in India’s year of BRICS Chairmanship 2026, the summit held in Bengaluru brings together 42 delegates, including Heads of SAIs from BRICS member countries to deliberate on audit themes of shared relevance, exchange best practices, and strengthen public financial oversight.

‘Living argument’

“There is something particularly fitting about gathering here, in the city that India calls both its Silicon Valley and its Garden City. A city that writes the software powering the world’s most advanced enterprises, and where, on the very same morning, a nurse boards an overcrowded bus for a ninety-minute commute to save lives that software cannot reach. Bengaluru, in that way, is not just a host city. It is the living argument for why this summit matters,” Mr. Murthy said.