Rain, pilgrim movement cripple Delhi’s traffic

With 30-minute commutes taking over an hour-and-half, residents in the Capital crawled through serpentine jams in the city caused by a combination of weekday rush, waterlogging after heavy rains, and thousands of pilgrims blocking the streets from on top of large vehicles or on foot in the final days of the Kanwar Yatra

With 30-minute commutes taking over an hour-and-half, residents in the Capital crawled through serpentine jams in the city caused by a combination of weekday rush, waterlogging after heavy rains, and thousands of pilgrims blocking the streets from on top of large vehicles or on foot in the final days of the Kanwar Yatra. Traffic police personnel, residents complained, were largely absent and there was little to no management on the ground.

A heavy spell of rain in the afternoon compounded the issue, inundating roads and resulting several vehicles breaking down. (Vipin Kumar/ HT)

Severe congestion was witnessed in many parts of south, east, northeast, and west Delhi. The worst-hit stretches were around the Delhi-Noida border in Kalindi Kunj, and the Delhi-Ghazipur borders in Ghazipur, Anand Vihar, and Dilshad Garden through which tens of thousands of Kanwar pilgrims were entering Delhi and moving onwards to Faridabad, Gurugram, and Bahadurgarh.

East of Kailash resident Karan Agarwal said, “Traffic congestion is a new normal for residents living in our neighbourhood and areas around Sant Nagar, as despite repeated complaints the authorities concerned have done nothing to solve the issue.”

Several residents turned to social media platforms, mainly X, to call out the absence of, what they said was, ground-level traffic management.

“Why are kanwariyas allowed to take the city hostage? Are only tax payers supposed to follow rules on the road? Been stuck for two hours now! What is the solution to all this mess each and every year?,” one commuter stuck near Modi Mill flyover said in a post.

A senior traffic police officer said that nearly 2,000 traffic personnel had been deployed across Delhi for Kanwar Yatra duty and they were doing their best to avoid major traffic jams.

The traffic situation in the city, which residents say, is already in a disarray was exacerbated as the number of pilgrims crossing the city continued to rise with yatra coming to an end and, in light of closures on key roads in neighbouring districts of Gurugram in Haryana and Ghaziabad and Noida in Uttar Pradesh, including sections of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway and the GT Road

With closures on the DME, the entire vehicular traffic burden fell onto NH-9, where acute bottlenecks at the border extended nearly 2km towards Ghaziabad.

A heavy spell of rain in the afternoon further compounded the issue, inundating roads and resulting several vehicles breaking down.

“It took me a little over two hours to reach Vasundhara from Kirti Nagar, which on usual days is an hour-long drive. The stretch from Ghazipur to UP Gate border was jam-packed with vehicles moving at a snail’s pace. I spent nearly 50 minutes covering 1km,” said businessman Abhinav Kaushik.

“The situation was worse when I was returning. The navigating map showed 2.28 hours to cover 40 km and reach Nawada and 2.11 hours to reach the destination through the alternate route via Eastern Peripheral Expressway,” the 42-year-old added.

Traffic Police on Monday issued an advisory for further disruption between August 12-15 with the Bharat Vyapar Mahotsav scheduled at Bharat Mandapam, expected to be attended by nearly 25,000 participants. On Tuesday, this will coincide with Shivratri, the last day of the Kanwar Yatra. Avoid Mathura Road and Bhairon Marg during peak hours, the advisory said.

In south and central Delhi, the worst-hit roads were Mathura Road between Ashram and Badarpur, Kalindi Kunj Road towards Badarpur, Sarita Vihar and Okhla Industrial Area, the Ring Road, especially between Dhaula Kuan and Sarai Kale Khan, the Outer Ring Road between Rao Tula Ram and Okhla, Mehrauli-Badarpur Road, Anandmayi Marg, Guru Ravidas Marg, Aurobindo Marg, Mehrauli-Gurugram Road, NH-48 via Mahipalpur, Sardar Patel Marg, Vikas Marg and Purana Quila Road.

In the evening, roads around East of Kailash, Nehru Place, Kalkaji, Chirag Delhi, Malviya Nagar, and Hauz Khas witnessed heavy traffic congestion. Commuters as well as residents living in such areas complained about the absence of traffic police personnel and non-functional traffic signals.

Kanwars, meanwhile, moved in large groups alongside slow-moving trucks, tractors, and other vehicles fitted with multiple boomboxes and disco lights, slowing down traffic on already busy roads.