Rally, VIP movement choke traffic across Delhi on Wednesday

NEW DELHI: Major parts of east, central and

Lutyens’ Delhi

were choked for a large part of Wednesday due to a combination of factors — a

Youth Congress rally

,

VVIP movement

and coming together of politicians at

Rajghat

to commemorate the Martyrs’ Day.

Cross-movement of crowd stalled peak-hour traffic on the arterial roads.


Around noon, traffic moved at a snail’s pace on stretches like Vikas Marg and Ring Road as rows of buses carrying participants of a Martyrs’ Day programme were parked on road. Youth Congress supporters marching to Talkatora Stadium from C-Hexagon via Ashoka Road made the matters worse.

Commuters were stuck for long hours at C-Hexagon, Mathura Road, Ring Road and Outer Ring Road as there was a cascading effect. Around the same time, Noida Link Road and Akshardham were choked by buses carrying Congress supporters. Police, however, claimed that the area was cleared by 2pm.

Traffic police deployed more than 2,000 personnel from different circles around the choke points to control vehicle movement. On other stretches, though, it was left for commuters to manage the situation. While cops expected most supporters to leave the city within a few hours of the Congress event, many of them chose to stay back till evening.

The chaos at C-Hexagon continued till late afternoon. Hordes of auto-rickshaws were parked near Children’s Park and

Rajpath

. A natural diversion from Mathura Road near Supreme Court to reduce vehicle volume at ITO also resulted in problems at C-Hexagon.

There was chaos at Vikas Marg and Noida Link Road, too, till late in the evening, as buses from NCR and western UP blocked arterial roads in an attempt to take a U-turn. “It took me about 45 minutes to reach ITO from Shakarpur, that too in the afternoon,” Sandeep Bishnoi, an east Delhi resident, said.

Traffic jams were reported near Majnu Ka Tilla as vehicles coming from Punjab and Haryana were parked on the road near Changdi Ram Akhara and Hanuman Mandir. Police said commercial vehicles going toward JLN Marg were stopped near Rajghat and

Paharganj

Chowk and diverted towards south Delhi to avoid further bottlenecks.