Delhi chokes in festive gridlock as traffic comes to a standstill

All day on Wednesday — not just during peak hours — there were reports of heavy congestion across the city, particularly impacting the Okhla-Noida link road, NH48 towards Dhaula Kuan, Outer Ring Road, and Ring Road, among other adjoining areas.

Traffic in large parts of the capital ground to a standstill on Wednesday as festive rush turned roads into parking lots, leaving commuters trapped for hours in what many residents called a “traffic emergency”. The Delhi Traffic Police —whose primary job is to manage traffic and keep the city moving — were conspicuously absent from the clogged intersections.

Traffic Jam at Ring road near Sarai Kalan Khan in New Delhi on Wednesday. (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

All day on Wednesday — not just during peak hours — there were reports of heavy congestion across the city, particularly impacting the Okhla-Noida link road, NH48 towards Dhaula Kuan, Outer Ring Road, and Ring Road, as well as adjoining areas like Savitri Flyover, Chirag Dilli, Greater Kailash, Nehru Place, Moolchand, Hauz Khas, Khanpur, Ashram Underpass, Mukarba Chowk, Azadpur Mandi roundabout and parts of east Delhi.

A senior traffic police officer, on the condition of anonymity, blamed the situation on the festival season. “People have holidays due to Dussehra and Durga Puja which is why there is heavy rush on the roads.”

The officer did not explain why traffic police personnel were absent from the roads despite the situation.

Commuters complained of traffic jams that lasted over two hours and hundreds of people took to X to share their complaints, including how traffic police officials were nowhere to be found and how only an automated response was being received on the traffic inspector’s phone number.

“I had to go to work from my residence in Khanpur to work in South Extension and I was stuck in traffic for two and a half hours. We know it’s festival time but at least police should be present to manage the traffic. People have parked their vehicles on the road. Vendors are running flea markets. Everything goes unchecked,” said Priyanka Mathur, 32, who paid ₹523 for an auto-rickshaw drop for that distance.

Another commuter, Nitin Garg, in a post on X, said, “Whole of South Delhi is jammed — Moolchand, Hauz khas, Chirag Dilli, Khanpur, Nehru Place, South Ex, Ashram underpass, Barapulla flyover etc. It’s a state of traffic emergency. No one is bothered about it.”

Avinash Shukla, who lives in Noida and was travelling to Greater Kailash for a meeting, said that he was stuck in traffic at multiple points and it took him three hours to reach. “It’s a mess. Maps showed a 40 minute congestion on the road and it took even longer than that. It’s a nightmare to use the roads in Delhi.”

Members of the market associations in Delhi were also fuming over the absence of traffic police personnel.

“From afternoon onwards the area is jam packed and there’s no traffic police to take care of the situation,” said Ashok Randhawa, president of the Sarojini Market Traders’ Association. “Some customers asked us not to close the shops as they were stuck in traffic. They told us that the red light on the road connecting Raj Nagar and Safdarjung Enclave wasn’t working.”

GK-2 Market Association Head Vikram Bhasin said, “The traffic is so bad that it is taking too much time to get in and out of GK-2. If there’s a patient stuck in this traffic, the situation is so bad that the person is likely to die on the way.”

“The entire V Savarkar Marg was choked and it was taking 40-45 minutes just to cover 500m of distance,” said the general secretary of the Lajpat Nagar Traders Association, Ashwini Marwah.

Atul Goyal, who heads United Residents Joint Action (URJA), a consortium of more than 2,500 resident welfare associations (RWAs), said that the human resource crunch in the force needs to be addressed. “It’s a fact that police are absent on the roads especially during the festivals because they are busy managing crowds at Ramlila fairs which go on till Diwali. There is a dire need for the authorities to realise the manpower crunch and address it.”