E-Paper
City caught in 12-hour traffic jam
THE STATE Capital virtually came to a standstill on Monday and the commuters had a tough time reaching their destinations being caught in a 12-hour jam. The chaos, that began with power employees? stir on Ashok Marg around 10 am continued till the visit of Shankaracharya this evening, throwing life out of gear for the entire day. Office-goers and students returning home from their schools had to bear the most of it.
Setu diversions, demonstrations and VVIP movements, all throw the city into the longest- ever chaos on the roads.
THE STATE Capital virtually came to a standstill on Monday and the commuters had a tough time reaching their destinations being caught in a 12-hour jam.
The chaos, that began with power employees’ stir on Ashok Marg around 10 am continued till the visit of Shankaracharya this evening, throwing life out of gear for the entire day. Office-goers and students returning home from their schools had to bear the most of it.
The worst was witnessed on Ashok Marg wherein power employees of Shakti Bhawan blocked one side of the road to stage a demonstration.
The employees sat on the stretch between Jawahar Bhawan and Sriram tower forcing all the traffic to pass from one lane only. The situation got worse with the increase in the volume of traffic as the day progressed. In a bid to escape the congestion on this route, several people took the Rana Pratap Marg and the adjacent Meerabai Marg. But, it couldn’t help either as the road was dug up and construction work was under progress, which only added confusion to the chaos. Situation got even worse in the noon when several schools in Hazratganj area got over.
By this time (around 2 pm), the power employees moved towards Hazratganj crossing and set up a road blockade. A few metres away from this crossing, there was another agitation in front of Vidhan Sabha Marg wherein hundreds of State Government employees joined in to press for their long pending demand.
As a result after Ashok Marg, Vidhan Sabha was another bottleneck for the city commuters.
Partial collapse of Hanuman Setu bridge added fuel to the fire as a number of vehicles were diverted towards Hazratganj and others from IT crossing and Daliganj bridge.
Yash Bharati Award at Lohia Park also triggered chaos on the main Gomti Nagar road. The VVIP movement on this road because of this presentation ceremony left many with grim faces, as the commuters remained stranded because of slow traffic movement on the road.
Last but not the least, the visit of Sankaracharya in the State Capital later in the evening left those returning from offices caught in a road jam. Monday was the day when Lucknowites had to experience poor traffic management of the city. Inauguration of the Haj House also applied brakes to the traffic flow on the Lucknow-Kanpur Road.
Schoolchildren were the worst hit because of the traffic chaos. Auto rickshaw packed with students had to wait for hours together to move a few metres. Even the traffic cop found it difficult to manage the traffic given the condition of the roads.
