When they returned to India in late 2008 after a fairly long stint in the USA, what hit Brijraj Vaghani and Ravi Khemani most was the terrible condition of roads in Mumbai and the fact that neither cops nor drivers had any clue about the condition of roads up ahead. After struggling, swearing, grumbling and bearing with bad roads and bad traffic for a few years, they finally decided to act in 2011. Thus was born Traffline -- an app born out of sheer frustration. “Ravi and I were in the US for nine and six years respectively for our engineering courses,” says Vaghani. The two had first left Mumbai in 2002 -- a time when everyone still didn’t own large cars and roads still had more tar than potholes. It was also a time when FM radios hadn’t yet started giving the hourly traffic updates and electronic road signages warning motorists about diversions up ahead, hadn’t been born either. On their return, the friends were shocked to see the complete lack of traffic information about a particular route, at any timeof the day.

Traffline has been working towards easing commuter woes by providing inputs about traffic jams. File Pic