Traffic moves at snail’s pace

Hundreds of commuters, who thronged south Delhi markets ahead of Raksha Bandhan, were left stranded in huge traffic snarls on Saturday afternoon due to barricading at several crucial points for the BJP’s first national council meet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Commuters had a harrowing time reaching important markets like Lajpat Nagar, Green Park and INA as they had to face traffic jams running into several kilometres. Some roads around Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium were even barricaded for pedestrians who had to wait several minutes to even cross the road.

Aditi Vij, a resident of Lajpat Nagar, had to meet someone at Lodhi Road Sai Temple, but had to wait for several minutes to reach her destination as the traffic police sealed all movement for passage of the PM Modi’s cavalcade.

“Waiting for 4- 5 minutes for the cavalcade to cross is fine, but what is the point of stopping vehicular as well as pedestrian movement for half- an- hour before the arrival. I don’t understand that,” said Ms Vij.

Another Delhiite, Jitender Malhotra, who had to reach Jangpura locality for some important work, thought of going back to his residence in Dwarka. “It was extremely irritating. I have not seen such a jam since my over 20 years of stay in the city,” Mr Malhotra said, adding that “it took me three hours to reach Jungpura from Moti Nagar due to the traffic jam.”

The areas affected were Ring Road, Lajpat Nagar, Safdarjung, INA market, Green Park, Lodhi Road, Maharani Bagh and several arterial roads in New Delhi district. When asked whether traffic advisory was issued about the meet, special commissioner of police ( traffic) Muktesh Chandra said, “For any VIP movement, no traffic advisory issued due to security reasons.”

“Elaborate traffic arrangements were made by the police, however, when there is a VIP movement of such a level some routes are bound to get affected,” Mr Chandra added.