Brace for more chaos on roads as New Year’s eve draws close
NEW DELHI: With just days left to bid goodbye to 2016 and New Year celebrations starting, the roads are packed with vehicles, with traffic crawling on most arterial segments.
On Tuesday, stretches such as South Extension, Nehru Place, Connaught Place, Sardar Patel Marg, Sarojini Nagar (on the Ring Road and towards Laxmibai Nagar), Defence Colony, August Kranti Marg (crossing Ansal Plaza), Rajouri Garden, Karol Bagh, and Dabri Road were clogged with vehicles.
The festival rush was seen especially around markets. Despite additional deployment of Delhi Traffic Police staff, vehicles illegally parked on roadsides added to commuter woes. Senior officials warned that the situation is likely to continue through the week and will get worse during new years’ weekend.
However, the rush in many markets seems less as compared to the previous years. Senior officials said that this might be the side effect of demonetisation.
“It is still too early to predict, but the footfall in markets such as Sarojini Nagar, Karol Bagh and Lajpat Nagar used to be a lot more. It might be the effect of demonetisation and that people are planning to spend with care. But the crowd at the more posh localities are not affected,” said a senior traffic official.
Officials also said that elaborate plans are being made to ensure safety on the roads for the New Year’s Day. Overnight drives will be conducted on the eve of New Year against drunk driving, speeding and rash driving.
“Last year too we placed barricades at important junctions to ensure that no accidents are caused due to drunk driving. Drivers were checked using breathalysers and licences were suspended for three months as per the Supreme Court order,” said the official.