Massive traffic snarls in Capital

New Delhi: Traffic crawled at a snail’s pace at many places in the Delhi-National Capital Region on Tuesday as police placed multiple layers of barricades and stopped the movement of vehicles at the Singhu and Tikri borders to thwart the farmers’ march to the city

Commuters faced a harrowing time on the roads, battling massive traffic snarls with Delhi being put under a heavy security cover with personnel in anti-riot gear deployed strategically and metal and concrete barricades regulating access to several key roads.

There was severe traffic congestion in the Ghazipur border area as well due to heavy security arrangements made by police. Only two vehicles were allowed to pass at a time with barricades being lined up on half of the key stretch connecting Noida and Delhi.

Feeling helpless and desperate at being stuck at the Ghazipur border for hours, Uttarakhand resident Arun Singh said he was on his way to visit his ailing father at the Lok Nayak hospital in Delhi.

Farmers demanding a law on minimum support price are marching towards Delhi after a meeting with a team of Union ministers over their demands remained inconclusive. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha said the farmers will head to Delhi to

press the Centre to accept their demands.

In view of the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march, police have intensified security at the city’s border points with multi-layer barricades, concrete blocks, iron nails and walls of containers.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic was seen at the Ghazipur, Singhu and Tikri borders from 7 in the morning. Later

in the afternoon, traffic movement was stopped at Singhu and Tikri.

“I knew about the farmers’ march scheduled for today and left for office an hour earlier from Gurugram’s Sector 29. Seeing the traffic situation, it seems I will reach

my office in central Delhi a couple of hours late,” Julie Lawrance said, adding that she had been stuck in traffic for at least an hour.

A traffic police officer noted that over two lakh people travel between Delhi and Gurugram each day during working hours and advised commuters to use the Metro train services.