Foodies meet VIPS near India Gate, traffic crawls
CHOKED Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cavalcade forced to slow down, road restrictions for movement of dignitaries adds to chaos near C Hexagon, traffic cops say snarls to continue
NEW DELHI: On Friday, foodies crossed paths with foreign dignitaries — owing to the inauguration of World Food India festival and a series of VIP movements — to leave roads near India Gate chock-a-block with traffic.
Traffic choked near India Gate’s C Hexagon and other arterial roads for almost four hours as thousands poured out to attend Day One of the World Food India festival. The problem was compounded by restrictions put in place due to the movement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other heads of state.
Senior police officers said that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cavalcade had to slow down as the traffic police took a while to clear snarls at Maulana Azad Road that leads towards the Prime Minister’s official residence.
Traffic police warned that the weekend was also likely to witness heavy traffic flow and advised motorists to avoid areas around India Gate till November 5.
Delhi traffic police said, vehicular movement was slow between 9.30 am and 1 pm on almost all arterial roads connecting India Gate. The worst affected stretches were Tilak Marg, Sher Shah Marg, Zakir Hussain Marg and Shahjahan Road.
Vishwas Das, a publishing house employee, who had to travel to South Delhi from Mayur Vihar, said it took him half an hour to cross the India Gate section due to heavy jams.
“The police had put up barricades at several roads including Barakhamba Road and Shahjahan Road, which led to massive jams. Besides, parking at the Children’s Park made things worse,” he said.
The traffic spillover from Friday’s jams were felt as far as Bhairon Marg , ITO and Sarai Kale Khan. Because of the choked India Gate C Hexagon and restrictions, the jams branched out to Vikas Marg towards the east or all the way till Ashram and Aurobindo Marg in the south. .
THE EVENT AND VIPS
The launch of the World Food Festival event was held at Vigyan Bhawan and then returned to its main venue India Gate lawns on Friday. The Vigyan Bhawan launch was attended by Prime Minister Modi, Latvian Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, along with many other dignitaries.
Around 3,000-4,000 delegates were present at the inaugural function at Vigyan Bhawan and at India Gate.
The VIP movements from different directions and later a series of meetings of the dignitaries at Hyderabad House hampered even the slow traffic flow as temporary restrictions had to be imposed by traffic cops to let the VIPS come in and go out of the event.
PARKING AND CONFUSION
The Delhi Police in its advisory had announced that those who had parking labels on their cars would be allowed to park at National Stadium and those without it would have to use the paid facility at Bhairon Marg. Many commuters on Friday, however, were confused. According to joint commissioner of police (traffic) Garima Bhatnagar, the confusion caused motorists to slow down and ask for directions.
Getting last minute parking access to dignitaries added to the chaos.
The visitors to the food festival had come in large buses and many parked near C Hexagon.
The 200-odd traffic policemen posted on duty had a tough time getting the buses to move to keep traffic flowing.
SUPREME COURT JUDGES HELD UP
The World Food India festival threw a spanner in the working of the Supreme Court on Friday with several judges getting stuck in massive traffic snarls in and around India Gate.
Supreme Court judge Kurian Joseph was one of the judges who bore the brunt of Friday’s snarls. His court begins at 10.30am but it was delayed by half-an-hour.
Proceedings in courts of several other judges were delayed as vehicles moved bumper-tobumper near India Gate.
VVIP movement to Vigyan Bhawan and Hyderabad House November 3 to November 5
A parking space was arranged for visitors of food festival 2.00pm to 7pm (last entry 5.30pm)
(for labelled parking) or (for unlabelled parking) No parking at India gate Lawns
Spillover from Bhairon Marg affected traffic flow here C Hexagon, between Purana Qila and Sher Shah Suri Marg Shuttles available from national Stadium and Bhairon Marg to India Gate lawns and vice versa)