·  Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu calls for extensive public transport in dense Indian cities

·  Cites Singapore’s COE model as a benchmark for curbing private car ownership

·  Criticizes car-centric projects like Bengaluru’s Rs18,500 crore tunnel plan

Zoho co-founder and Chief Scientist Sridhar Vembu called for a strong revamp of India's public transportation networks, emphasizing the need for infrastructure overhaul in the country's highly populated city regions.

In a recent social media post on platform X (formerly Twitter), Vembu cited Singapore as the model for livability, citing that the city-state depends on a well-tuned public transportation system while closely managing private car ownership with its Certificate of Entitlement (COE) system.

"Indian cities are much more congested than Singapore. We need to construct comprehensive public transport to make our cities habitable. It is possible," Vembu posted. He also described how Singapore's COE scheme makes it expensive to own a car to over S$100,000 even before considering the cost of the car itself.

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His statement was made in rebuttal to a tweet by BJP leader Tejasvi Surya, who condemned the Karnataka government's planned Rs 18,500 crore Bengaluru tunnel road project, saying that it mainly benefits car owners in terms of a small fraction of people compared to the majority of the population.

Vembu's blog post rapidly went viral, attracting more than 170,000 views and triggering an outpouring of comments from citizens. Most users echoed his views, mentioning poor last-mile connectivity, absence of dependable public transport facilities, and the cost of car ownership as main issues.

One of the commenters said, "Build cities, not buildings. It's not possible to restrict cars like Singapore, but reward public transport via PPP models might be the solution." Another suggested, "If there is improved last-mile connectivity and air-conditioned public transport, nobody would like to wait in traffic. People want convenience, not congestion.

Vembu's observations highlight an increasing demand within India's startup and tech community to reimagine urban mobility and infrastructure not only as a civic imperative but as a central pillar supporting liveable, innovation-driven cities.