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Even with no VIP in fleet, how 10-min convoy movement chokes Lucknow roads
With Lucknow increasingly hosting national-level events, traffic police find themselves under mounting pressure to strike a balance between security and public convenience
With the full-fledged zero-traffic protocols enforced even when the VIP concerned is not present in the fleet, halting vehicular movement for around eight to 10 minutes at a stretch in the state capital creates a cascading effect that chokes adjoining roads and intersections long after the convoy has passed and the impact often lingers for hours, according to officials in the know of things.
Complete traffic halts are commonly referred to as “zero traffic”.
A senior police officer, requesting anonymity, said, “The entire route is sanitised, traffic is stopped, signals are overridden and manpower is deployed. Later, we realised the VIP was not even part of that particular movement.”
“Even a 10-minute stoppage at a major crossing can lead to queues stretching several kilometres. Once traffic piles up, it takes at least 45 minutes to an hour to normalise, especially during office hours or school dispersal time,” said a traffic officer posted on one of the city’s busiest corridors.
With the 86th All India Presiding Officers’ Conference (AIPOC) and the 62nd Conference of Secretaries of Legislative Bodies scheduled at Vidhan Bhavan from January 19 to 21, and several VVIPs and VIPs expected in the city, Lucknow police are bracing for intensified convoy movements.
Another officer said that a single VVIP airport visit could trigger multiple zero-traffic episodes in a day.
“The convoy first drops the VVIP at the airport. The same fleet then returns empty, again requiring traffic clearance. Later, it goes back to receive the VVIP and finally escorts them back meaning the same route is blocked four times in one day,” the officer said.
Such movements become more frequent during national conferences, political programmes and official engagements, when multiple convoys operate simultaneously across the city.
Each movement requires advance traffic stoppage at several junctions, often pushing roads already operating near capacity during peak hours into gridlock.
Commuters echoed the concern, saying they are often left stranded without any information on the duration of stoppages. “There are no announcements or alerts. Traffic suddenly freezes. Ambulances get stuck, school buses are stuck, and then a few empty cars with beacons pass by,” said an office-goer from Gomti Nagar.
“Once a movement plan is approved, traffic arrangements have to be executed strictly as per protocol. Field officers cannot decide whether a convoy is necessary or not,” another officer said.
With Lucknow increasingly hosting national-level events, traffic police find themselves under mounting pressure to strike a balance between security imperatives and public convenience. Senior officials said efforts are being made to rationalise convoy movements, club routes wherever possible, and reduce the duration of zero traffic, but acknowledged that coordination gaps continue to cause avoidable congestion.
HT reached out to DCP Traffic Kamlesh Dixit who declined to comment on the issue.
