Ripple effect causes massive traffic jam

On Wednesday evening, south and central Delhi witnessed its worst traffic jam in recent times. As water gushed out of the broken water line, flooding the Ring Road near Pragati Maidan, traffic was thrown out of gear.

On Wednesday evening, south and central Delhi witnessed its worst traffic jam in recent times.

HT Image

As water gushed out of the broken water line, flooding the Ring Road near Pragati Maidan, traffic was thrown out of gear.

Traffic at India Gate and radial roads connecting C-Hexagon around India Gate did not move for almost an hour during the peak time of 6pm-7pm. All roads in Connaught Place, near ITO, and the connecting roads were choc-a-bloc. The ripple effect of the jam in central Delhi could be seen on arterial roads of south, east and north Delhi.

“Traffic did not move at all for more than 45 minutes. There was a long queue of vehicles on every connecting road. The worst part is that the traffic police were not ready to share the reason for the snarls with hapless motorists,” said Deepen Saha, an accountant stuck at Zakir Husain Marg.

Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg near ITO, Netaji Subhash Marg in Daryaganj, Vikas Marg, Ring Road at Ashram, all roads connecting India Gate, Connaught Place, Parliament Street, Ashoka Road, Sikandara Road and Lala Lajpat Rai Marg were some of the roads affected due to traffic diversions.

According to the traffic police chief, major traffic diversions had to be made to streamline traffic after cordoning off one carriageway of Ring Road between Bhairon Road-Ring T-point and NH-24.

“We diverted all traffic coming from north and east Delhi towards ITO, Tilak Marg and Mandi House. As volume of traffic at India Gate increased, it had its effect on other roads and important traffic intersections around the area,” joint commissioner (traffic) SN Shrivastava said.

Traffic police officers said the timing of the flooding couldn’t have been worse, as people were coming out of office then.