Traffic crawls in Delhi as people throng roads for shopping on Dhanteras

Delhi traffic police officials said that on several arterial roads, vehicles moved at a snail’s pace, doubling the travel time as compared to regular days

Long traffic jams were seen across the national capital on the occasion of Dhanteras on Tuesday, as commuters thronged the roads for festival shopping.

Senior traffic police officials said that while higher traffic volume was observed in many parts of the Capital on Tuesday morning, the situation got worse in the evening. (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

Delhi traffic police officials said that on several arterial roads, vehicles moved at a snail’s pace, doubling the travel time as compared to regular days.

Senior traffic police officials said that while higher traffic volume was observed in many parts of the Capital on Tuesday morning, the situation got worse in the evening. They said that the snarls were particularly bad around major markets, where haphazardly parked vehicles ate up road space.

“We had anticipated higher traffic volume today (Tuesday) because of the Dhanteras festival rush, so we deployed additional traffic officials to direct vehicles. We had teams that were specially assigned for markets to ensure that there was no crowding. We were also checking illegal parking, which usually becomes a reason for traffic jams,” said a senior traffic police official.

Information received from the traffic police’s control room showed that the worst affected stretches on Tuesday were Green Park, Ring Road around Lajpat Nagar, near Hyatt Hotel (around Sarojini Nagar market), Outer Ring Road near Vasant Vihar, Rajouri Garden (near the Metro station), Ashram intersection, Lala Lajpat Rai Road, Sardar Patel Marg towards Dhaula Kuan, ITO crossing, Shankar Road, Nangloi Chowk, Dwarka Link Road, Pankha Road, and Raghubir Nagar.

Other areas that saw crawling traffic on Tuesday were areas near the Chattrasal Stadium, Ashok Vihar, Old Rohtak Road, Moolchand, and Mehrauli-Badarpur Road.

Many commuters took to social media to complain about traffic mismanagement. They also complained about unmanned barricades placed by the Delhi Police, especially around roads leading up to markets and shopping malls, which they claimed made the traffic jams worse.

“To cover a 100-metre distance from Savitri Cinema to Greater Kailash-II, it took me 45 minutes. There were no traffic policemen to be seen on the roads,” tweeted Sanjay Singh, a commuter.

Another commuter, Subodh Singh also complained about traffic personnel not being seen on the roads. “Rajender Nagar crossing was totally out of control and no traffic policeman is seen,” he said.

A senior traffic official said that traffic jams are expected across the city on Wednesday as well, adding that additional police personnel will be deployed to manage potential bottlenecks.

“Diwali last year had many restrictions, but this time we are expecting jams to be more than usual. The restrictions on the Delhi Metro will also impact traffic on roads. However, we are doing our best to manage the situation, but we would also like to request people to not plan their shopping trips during the peak hours of the evening. If they can, they should travel after the office rush hours in the morning or before the rush starts again in the evening hours,” the official said.