By IANS
New Delhi : A rush of festival shoppers ahead of Diwali brought the vehicular traffic to a standstill for hours in many places in the capital Wednesday evening, with thousands of vehicles caught in traffic jams.
“It took me 30 minutes to reach the outer circle of Connaught Place from the inner circle, which usually takes not more than just five minutes,” said Ajit Singh.
“There were so many people out to shop for Dhanteras and Diwali… the roads were clogged for several hours during peak hours,” Singh told IANS.
Traffic police officials struggled to manage the vehicular flow at key points in the city.
“All our traffic police strength is deployed on the city roads, but we advise people to use Delhi Metro and public transport buses and avoid using personal vehicles,” said a senior traffic police official.
Several VIP cars were also stuck on roads in the diplomatic enclave of Chanakyapuri, forcing traffic police officials to come to their rescue.
R.K. Puram, the Ring Road, Ashram, Nizammudin, Connaught Place, ITO, Jama Masjid, Mori Gate and Janak Puri were some of the places that were worst hit by traffic snarls.
“It took us almost an hour to reach Connaught Place from Bhikaji Cama Place. The huge traffic forced four of us to park our cars in Patel Chowk and take Delhi Metro to go to Chawari Bazar,” said Rohan Sharma.
Delhi Metro, which ferries nearly 600,000 commuters a day, witnessed huge rush as many preferred to take the Metro to avoid traffic jams on roads.
“Though we have not yet compiled the data of commuters travelling by Delhi Metro Wednesday, we observed a massive increase in the numbers,” said a Delhi Metro spokesman.
The situation is likely to peak on the evening of Diwali, the festival of lights, to be celebrated Friday.
The capital has over five million vehicles, and around one million vehicles from the neighbouring states visit it every day.