Logistics tech firm BlackBuck will move out of its Bellandur office on Bengaluru’s Outer Ring Road (ORR) after nine years, with co-founder and CEO Rajesh Yabaji citing long commutes, potholes and dust and little intent to fix them, as the breaking point.
What triggered the move?
In a post on X on September 16, Yabaji said ORR (Bellandur) had been the company’s “office + home” for nearly a decade, but it had become “very-very hard to continue.”
He detailed how the average one-way commute for colleagues had crossed 1.5 hours, with “roads full of potholes & dust” and no improvement in sight for the next five years. The post, timestamped 10:31 am on September 16, underlined the decision: “We have decided to move out.”
Times of India’s Bengaluru desk reported the move as a response to “death-trap roads,” summarising Yabaji’s rationale and the strain on employee welfare. India Today also covered the exit, framing it as a cautionary tale of how persistent potholes are now hurting business decisions, not just commutes, with BlackBuck leaving its Bengaluru office over worsening road conditions.
Governance under the scanner
The decision sparked sharp reactions from industry veterans. Former Infosys CFO and Aarin Capital chief T.V. Mohandas Pai called it a “big failure of governance in Bengaluru,” amplifying pressure on civic authorities along the key tech corridor.
Political outreach begins
Within hours of the news cycle, Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Nara Lokesh publicly invited Yabaji to consider relocating BlackBuck to Visakhapatnam (Vizag). In his pitch, Lokesh highlighted civic and safety rankings for the coastal city while positioning Vizag as a cleaner, safer alternative for businesses. (These are the minister’s claims as reported.)
Why it matters?
- Signal from a unicorn-scale player: India Today noted BlackBuck as being worth over $1 billion, making its office shift an unmistakable signal from a scaled logistics platform that depends on road efficiency every day.
- Employee-first calculus: The trigger was not a tax break or real-estate deal but commute pain and safety concerns, a template that other firms grappling with ORR congestion will be watching closely.
- Policy moment: Pai’s “governance” framing and the immediate political courtship from Andhra, turns a company’s facilities decision into a wider policy moment for urban infrastructure competitiveness.
None of the reports specify BlackBuck’s next office location; what’s clear is that the move is out of the ORR/Bellandur office footprint. The timeline and destination will be closely watched by other tech-enabled firms that anchor teams along ORR.
“ORR (Bellandur) has been our ‘office + home’ for the last 9 years. But it’s now very-very hard to continue here. We have decided to move out… Average commute… 1.5+ hrs (one way)… roads full of potholes & dust… didn’t see any of this changing in the next 5 years.” – Rajesh Yabaji, X post on Sep 16, 2025
BlackBuck’s decision is a data point that hits where it hurts Bengaluru most: the credibility of its infrastructure to support high-skill, high-density employment hubs. One CEO’s exit from ORR will not empty the corridor, but it raises the cost of complacency.
The next move is with the city’s civic and political leadership, whose response will determine whether this story remains an exception or becomes a trend.
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