The Hindu : New Delhi News : Traffic jams for 4th day

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 25, 2006
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New Delhi

Traffic jams for 4th day

Staff Reporter

The presence of traffic cops did not help much

RELIGIOUS PROCESSION: `Panj Pyaras' at a procession to mark the martyrdom day of the ninth Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur in New Delhi on Friday. Vehicular movement in the Capital was nearly brought to a standstill in the wake of the procession. Photo: Sush il Kumar Verma

NEW DELHI: For the fourth consecutive day on Friday thousands of Delhi's citizens had to endure major traffic jams and traffic police mismanagement on the roads. Motorists had a harrowing time in the heart of the Capital as vehicular movement was brought to a near standstill due to the procession taken out to mark the martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur.

As the procession wound its way through congested parts of the Walled City area and New Delhi district, it had a major impact on the movement of vehicles along the route. The procession which began at 10 in the morning from Gurdwara Sis Ganj in Chandni Chowk took a leisurely nine hours to reach Gurdwara Rakab Ganj in New Delhi. As a result of this, peak hour traffic in the evening was badly impacted. An activist of the All-India Anti Terrorist Front claimed that it took him nearly 45 minutes to reach Parliament from ITO around 5 in the evening as the roads were chock-a-block with vehicles.

Another office-goer working near Reserve Bank of India complained of having been stuck at the Windsor Place roundabout on Janpath for over half-an-hour.

Given the sheer volume of traffic, even the presence of traffic policemen at busy intersections did not help much.

At many places, people complained of gross mismanagement of traffic light signals by the traffic police.

The only saving grace was the Delhi Metro that allowed people an easier option of moving across the city. Though the passenger volumes on the Metro continued to be at an all time high due to the ongoing trade fair, those using the system were still better off than those on the roads.

The worst affected were residents of areas where the Delhi Metro has still not reached -- namely South and East Delhi. As many of them still have to use their private transport to travel to and for the heart of the city, they found themselves in a situation in which a multiplicity of factors brought the vehicular movement to a halt.

With the past two days also witnessing massive traffic jams due to a number of protest marches in the city, office-goers are now eagerly looking forward to a peaceful weekend.

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