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Unannounced traffic drill leads to chaos in Capital
Officers said Tuesday’s rehearsal was conducted to test police preparedness for unplanned routes, sudden disorders, and unscheduled movements
On Tuesday morning, the Delhi Police decided it was time for a “contingency” drill — “to test even those situations in which we would have to make arrangements (for the movement of G20 leaders and delegates) with usual traffic in place”, said Aalap Patel, deputy commissioner of police (traffic).
The unannounced rehearsal caught commuters by surprise, with even police personnel on the roads not sure of what to do. The confusion led to a mess that spilled over till at least early afternoon in some parts of the city.
To be sure, there were rehearsals on Saturday and Sunday as well, but those were done after detailed advisories were issued. Monday’s rehearsal of carcades, as the police calls them (a portmanteau of cars and cavalcade) — from hotels to Pragati Maidan, and to IARI Pusa and NGMA — brought traffic to a halt, especially in Lutyens’ Delhi, during peak office rush hours. Congestion was reported from Shanti Path, Sardar Patel Marg, C-Hexagon, Bhairon Marg, Bhairon Road-Ring Road, and Mathura Road.
Patel said “the very nature of Tuesday’s rehearsal was to test our preparedness for unplanned routes, sudden disorders, and unscheduled movements”. But to ensure minimum disruption to city’s motorists, the rehearsal was planned for the morning hours between 5am and 10am, he added. The exercise involved the movement of the entire carcade rather than separate batches of it, he explained.
Oddly enough, Delhi Police just a day ago said it will not spring any traffic surprises on residents.
“When we noticed that the public was facing inconvenience, we issued a late advisory,” Patel admitted. Clearly, that came a little too late.
A similar rehearsal is expected for Wednesday morning, from the hotels to Rajghat and Pragati Maidan. This time, Patel said, an advisory will be issued by the traffic police’s social media accounts either late Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. “Although we are again scheduling our drills for the morning hours, there could be some jam around Rajghat and near Kashmere Gate,” he said, adding that all efforts were being made to reduce the jams.
“There shouldn’t be much trouble for commuters till 10am on Wednesday. Whatever inconvenience occurs, will be after that,” he added.
Snarls were witnessed in several other parts of the city, including the ITO junction, the Meerut-Delhi Expressway, Mukarba Chowk, Patel Nagar, and Okhla also in the afternoon.
A senior police officer, asking not to be named, said that while some of these jams were spillovers of the gridlocks in New Delhi region, some others were on account of stricter-than-usual checking at police barricades.
One commuter said confusion reigned on roads when she drove to work in central Delhi from Gurugram as late as 1pm. “Since the map indicated massive jams on my usual route via Dhaula Kuan, I chose to go towards Vasant Vihar. The road towards South Campus was blocked by police, so I went for towards Moti Bagh and found that shut as well. I finally managed to get out of the mess after trying multiple routes for over an hour.”
Commuters were also agitated about the lack of an alert from the traffic police. “If they could share such detailed advisories for rehearsals on the weekend, there is no reason they shouldn’t have warned us on a Tuesday morning,” said Prasanna Prasad, another commuter travelling from Dwarka to New Delhi. “If this is the condition on a day without any announced restrictions, I dread thinking of how the situation will be on the summit days,” Prasad added. Satyarth Singh, an advocate who too found himself driving around in confusion, said “there is no reason to keep commuters in the dark about traffic restrictions. Police should share a clear traffic plan for at least the remaining days.”