Capital chokes with traffic as kanwar camps come down
NEWDELHI: Traffic jams in several arterial roads across Delhi continued on Wednesday with kanwariya camps being dismantled and devotees conducting ‘bhandaras’, a day after Sawan Shivratri.
In many parts of the capital, traffic holdups were made worse with vehicle breakdowns—eight public buses reportedly broke down on Wednesday.
Senior Delhi Traffic Police officials said that many kanwariya camps sponsors had to be asked to hold the dismantling of tents till afternoon, so that the vehicular movement is not disrupted. Though camps set up by government agencies were given the orders to take down the set only after the peak traffic hours was over, many such camps that were set up on the sidelines of major stretches were the reason for traffic jams.
A day after Sawan Shivratri many devotees also organised bhandaras outside temples, which also added to the slowed down vehicular movement.
“At traffic heavy stretches such as National Highway-24, Airport Road and near Rajouri Garden main road we had to stop dismantling and movement of resources to pave way for traffic in the morning (on Wednesday),” said a senior traffic official. The official said that jams were reported around the Delhimeerut expressway, Patparganj Road, Dabri Mor, Dhaula Kuan, Airport Road (towards Dhaula Kuan), Noida Link Road, Loni Road, Sri Aurobindo Marg, Outer Ring Road (near Munirka), Lajpat Nagar metro station and Rao Tula Ram (RTR) Marg.
“Heavy traffic on Delhi Cantonment towards Airport / Gurgaon (Gurugram) road. Stuck for more than one-and-a-half hours. Please avoid this route. Your bosses are not going to even acknowledge it if you give it a reason of coming late to office,” tweeted Manoj Anand.
Apart from the kanwariya camps, commuter woes were made worse by vehicle breakdowns too. According to Delhi Traffic Police helpline, jams were reported because of eight public buses, while complaints of 17 private vehicles breaking down in the middle of the roads were registered.
At traffic heavy stretches, we had to stop dismantling (of camps) and movement of resources to pave way for traffic in the morning. SENIOR TRAFFIC OFFICIAL