Severe jams due to trade fair, traffic thrown out of gear

Traffic congestion was reported on major roads of the national Capital on Sunday evening. There were bumper-to-bumper jams witnessed near ITO, Pragati Maidan, the Ring Road stretch from Ashram to South Extension, the stretch from DND flyway to Ashram Chowk and again the Mathura Road stretch from Ashram Chowk to Kalkaji.

There were traffic jams near Pragati Maidan mainly due to the India International Trade Fair 2014, which attracts huge crowd every year. The congestion there was reported at around 5 pm, despite stern measures taken by Delhi Traffic Police to keep the area free of snarls till the end of the trade fair.

From 4.30 pm to 6.30 pm, almost all carriageways towards ITO were dealing with a huge traffic volume. Similar nature of traffic congestion was also witnessed on Friday evening, when the trade fair was inaugurated.

‘The roads are usually clear on Sundays and I was shocked when it took me around an hour to cross the stretch from Ashram to the Modi Mill in the evening,’ said Ashish Saqlani, a BPO employee. As per records maintained by the Traffic Police helpline services, on the time span between 4.30 pm and 6.30 pm, jams were reported from Delhi Cantonment area to Jail Road near Tihar in west Delhi, Bhajanpura in north-east Delhi, Piragarhi, Mayapuri, Durgapuri and Modi Mill.

In and around Modi Mill, the traffic snarls were largely due to Delhi Jal Board repair works going on in the area currently. However, the reasons behind the congestions reported from the Ring Road stretch from Ashram to South Extension and the stretch from DND flyway to Ashram Chowk could not be known.

Meanwhile, at Durgapuri, a man had recently died in a road accident. Agitated locals had blocked the road calling for justice, said a traffic official. He further added that the traffic jam at Mayapuri was because of a bus break down, which was later removed by the authorities.