Heavy festive rush blocks city routes
With people criss-crossing the city for Raksha Bandhan rituals, the capital witnessed traffic congestion on various stretches on Tuesday. The worst affected was the 15-km stretch from ISBT (Kashmere Gate) to Shastri Park, extending up to Apsara border, with commuters forced to deal with bumper-to-bumper traffic for well over five
hours. Some other border points like Badarpur too witnessed heavy traffic snarls. According to a Delhi traffic police official, the road from ISBT-Shastri Park began getting choked with traffic after 11 am as a large number of vehicles were out on the road.
The situation was particularly bad around 2 pm with traffic coming to a virtual standstill. Traffic continued to move at a snail’s pace till 6 pm when it began to ease. However, the “return rush” made the traffic police officials wary. The traffic helpline kept advising people to wait till at least 7 pm or 8 pm before taking this particular stretch.
Pradeep Kumar, a businessman in Dwarka, said: “I started from Dwarka around noon and should have reached my sister’s house in Dilshad Garden in a couple of hours. But I just could not move after I reached Shastri Park. In fact, I reached there by 3.30 p.m. Then, I asked my kids and wife to board the Metro train. I had to return to Dwarka as there was no space for parking at the station.” Even those on two-wheelers failed to find their way through the traffic jam.
“Nothing untoward had happened and there were no faulty signals. Traffic policemen too were on the road. But due to high volume of vehicles, the stretch was affected. A large number of vehicles coming in from Ghaziabad side on Apsara border and vice versa worsened the situation,” said a traffic police official. He added that the commuters were advised to take the Gandhi Nagar route as a “better option” to reach Loni border.
Heavy traffic congestion was also reported from Badarpur border, though the situation was in control on the Singhu and Ghazipur borders.
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