Clogged roads spoil festive mood

Hours of traffic snarls spoilt the festive mood of Delhiites. Massive jams were reported from many areaa in South and other parts of Delhi on Sunday. 

Despite being a weekend, the traffic volume was more than on week days. Since Maha Ashtami fell on Sunday, many, along with their relatives and friends, drove to puja pandals. But their festive mood was taken for a ride as they were stuck in traffic gridlocks for hours to reach Durga Puja pandals in South Delhi, especially CR Park.

Those coming from East, Central, South-West and South-East Delhi were caught in massive jams as they reached roads connecting to CR Park. 

According to the traffic police department, the major cause of bottleneck on Sunday was the haphazard parking of vehicles on the Ring Road. As a result, traffic crawled at a snail’s pace.

The areas that were worst-affected were Greater Kailash, Nehru Place, Kalkaji Mandir, East of Kailash, BRT, Chirag Delhi, Modi Mill and Okhla.

Apart from the Durga Puja, devotees visiting Kalkaji Mandir also added to the jams. Due to the Navratris, several people visit the Kalkaji Mandir and the traffic volume increases in adjoining areas such as New Friends Colony, Modi Mill, Okhla, Jamia Nagar and Nehru Place. On Sunday, a large number of people visited pandals in CR Park. Many had parked their vehicles on the internal lanes, which added to the jam. 

Since Sunday evening, Gurudwara Road at GK II and Vipin Chander Pal Marg and adjoining road of CR Park II were closed by the Traffic Police for the general traffic due to Durga Puja.  

“It took me one-and-a-half hour to reach CR Park from Modi Mill. When I reached here, there was no parking space. The whole festive mood has been spoiled now,” said Rekha, who along with her children drove from Faridabad.

Also, a large number of Ramleela happenings in the city have attracted many families, adding to traffic woes. Almost 90 per cent of them travel by their own vehicles, and that was another reason of Sunday’s traffic jam.