Day 1: Delhiites take a day off, face traffic jams
New Year celebrations, holiday and a pleasant weather resulted in Capital’s roads getting choc-a-bloc with vehicles for almost the entire day, welcoming 2012 in a characteristic traffic jam on Sunday. HT reports.
New Year celebrations, holiday and a pleasant weather resulted in Capital’s roads getting choc-a-bloc with vehicles for almost the entire day, welcoming 2012 in a characteristic traffic jam on Sunday.
Shivam Verma, an IT personnel wanted to go from Rajinder Nagar to Pandara Road. “But unlike for a Sunday noon, the Shankar Road was jammed. I could reach Pandara road only via Chanakyapuri and that too a whole three hours late,” he said.
Roads in central and west Delhi also bore a congested look from morning till late evening, owing to a Nagar Kirtan on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh. It started from Gurdwara Rakab Ganj and travelled from Shankar Road, Raja Garden and Hari Nagar to reach Guru Teg Bahadur Institute of Technology in west Delhi.
A Sunday ensured that Delhiites came out in droves to India Gate to celebrate the New Year. “I took my visiting cousin for a drive to show her the Parliament and the Rashtrapati Bhavan. At India Gate, it seemed like the whole Delhi had descended for celebrations,” said Sagar SK, a resident of Ghaziabad. The police had blocked vehicular movement on Rajpath and vehicles were allowed only on roads cutting across it. “Due to large volume of pedestrian movement, we halted traffic at various points to allow people to cross over,” said Satyendra Garg, joint CP (traffic).
Even east Delhi experienced chaotic traffic conditions, especially during the afternoon, owing to large congregation of devotees for the Bhairon Jayanti celebrations at the Bhairon Mandir. This resulted in heavy congestion on the Bhairon Marg with a cascade effect on Mathura Road and the Ring Road.
“In fact, the congestion stretched on the Nizamuddin bridge too and right up to Akshardham temple,” said Sunanda Singhi, who managed to reach CP only after spending close to two hours in her car.
“We had deployed sufficient number of traffic police personnel,” said Garg. Connaught Place witnessed heavy traffic jam in the evening.