Kanwar Yatra: Delhi-Meerut Road to be closed to heavy vehicles from July 4-18
The officials said during last year’s Kanwar Yatra, there was an inflow of about three million pilgrims and they are expecting more pilgrims this year
The Ghaziabad traffic police has announced diversions to facilitate the upcoming Kanwar Yatra and said traffic coming from Uttarakhand will mostly use National Highway 9 (NH-9) to reach their destinations, while Delhi-Meerut Road will be made out of bounds for different categories of vehicles from midnight of July 4 to the morning of July 18.
Kanwar Yatra will begin in first week of this month. During the annual pilgrimage, Kanwariyas, or Shiva devotees, visit places such as Haridwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri in Uttarakhand and Sultanganj in Bihar to fetch the holy water from river Ganga. They then carry it by foot across several kilometres to dispense as offerings in local Shiva temples or specified shrines such as Kashi Vishwanath in Varanasi and Baba Baidyanath in Deoghar.
“Heavy commercial vehicles such as trucks, buses, tractors and mini trucks will not be allowed on Delhi-Meerut Road till the morning of July 18. They will be diverted to NH-9 and can proceed further to their destinations and also to states of Haryana and Rajasthan after taking the Eastern Peripheral Expressway.. Light vehicles such as cars and two-wheelers will be banned on the Delhi-Meerut Road from midnight of July 8 till morning of July 18,” said Ramanand Kushwaha, assistant commissioner of police (traffic).
The Delhi-Meerut Road is a major road which cater to local commuters and long distance travellers to and from western Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Traffic officials said the traffic on city’s internal roads will also not be allowed on Delhi-Meerut Road during the diversion period.
“The Delhi-Meerut Road will witness a heavy flow of pilgrims and Dak Kanwars -- pilgrims who sprint with the water for short spans -- during the period and hence the diversions. Our entire personnel will man the route in Ghaziabad district while the civil police and the administration have also made elaborate arrangements for smooth conduct of the Kanwar Yatra,” the ACP said.
The officials said during last year’s Kanwar Yatra, there was an inflow of about three million pilgrims and they are expecting more pilgrims this year.
Officials said they have a 42.5km Kanwar route on the Delhi-Meerut Road in Ghaziabad and another 25km route from Muradnagar to Tila Morh.
These two routes will be used by Kanwarias to move to Delhi, Loni, Haryana and Rajasthan, traffic police said.
Ghaziabad officials said they are expecting about 150 temporary camps to be set up for pilgrims on the route while the police have said that about 40 watch towers, and 180 CCTV cameras will be set up on the two Kanwar routes.
The district administration has already directed the deployment of 150 water tankers, 180 CCTV cameras, 29 ambulances and 250 health-care workers besides checking the functional status of 8,638 street lighting points on these two routes.
