Traffic jams greet commuters on Rakhi
LUCKNOW : There were massive traffic jams on most of the city roads on Monday despite government offices and schools remaining closed on account of Raksha Bandhan. This was the reason why commuters remained stranded for hours together on several stretches.
The traffic jams were there not only in old city areas like Aishbagh, Nakkhas, Talkatora road, Naka and Rajendra Nagar but also on Alambagh Hardoi road via Kakori, Lucknow Sultanpur Road, Lucknow Kanpur highway and Sitapur IIM road.
The traffic snarls began around 11 am and swelled as the day progressed. The auspicious time of tying Rakhi was between 11:05 am and 1:30 pm. Many said it was because of the limited time period for tying Rakhi that resulted in huge flow of traffic as people came out in big numbers to reach their destinations.
People took to social media like twitter and facebook to caution their well wishers not to come out of their houses unless it was very much necessary. Traffic jam was also seen near Munshi Pulia and Tedi Pulia crossing. “Avoid taking Munshi Pulia road today,” someone posted on the facebook.
Sushil Rastogi, a resident of Kursi road, told HT that it took him 90 minutes to reach Vibhuti Khand, Gomti Nagar.
“I left home at 1 pm and could reach Gomti Nagar by 2:30 pm. I have never seen traffic jams like this on Raksha Bandhan day,” he said.
Varsha Singh (35), a commuter heading for Rajajipuram from Rajendra Nagar, said it took her more than an hour to reach Rajajaipuram on a four wheeler. Another commuter Vishal Mishra posted on twitter that Lucknow Kanpur highway was completely packed and vehicles were just crawling.
Because of the jam on the Lucknow Kanpur highway, Rae Bareli and Unnao city also witnessed massive traffic jams.
Commuters blamed traffic police for their inability to control movement of people and of vehicles.
The traffic cops remained mute spectators and made no attempts to help commuters stuck in the jam. The police department did try to reach out to commuters on twitter but it was insufficient as the traffic cops did not respond to their tweets.