Protests in Jaipur, baraats in Delhi trigger snarls on NH8

Gurgaon: The Karni Sena protests near NH8 in Jaipur, extravagant baraat processions near banquets and farmhouses lining the highway and evening rush hour traffic triggered massive tailbacks on the Delhi-Gurgaon road on Wednesday evening.Red brake lights stretched for nearly 40km on the three arms of the NH8 towards the capital city, blinking repeatedly as drivers endured an exasperating stop-and-go journey, which stretched till 9.45pm.“It’s like a sea. A sea of cars,” said Shivani Tambe, an IT employee driving from her workplace in Gurgaon to Mayur Vihar. “I’m stuck in front of the Ambience mall for more than an hour. I had an appointment with a doctor at 8pm. It’s already 7pm and I’m still in Gurgaon,” Tambe, who shared a series of posts on X, told TOI.While rush hour traffic leads to snarls on the stretch daily, on Wednesday commuters were stranded on the road for over two hours.According to traffic cops, the protests over the murder of Karni Sena national president Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi in Jaipur started to dissipate around 4pm, leading vehicles, stuck near the Rajasthan border due to the blockades and demonstrations there, to a rush towards the city and Delhi.This traffic reached the corporate hub over the next hour and merged with the fleet of office-goers cars heading towards the capital. A minor disruption near terminal 3 of the IGI airport, almost around the same time, added to the tailback that extended up to Rajiv Chowk.Multiple wedding processions near the Gurgaon-Delhi border, which houses several hotels and farmhouses, added to the chaos.Bharat Sharma, who was driving to Delhi from Ajmer, said, “I left home around 11am to avoid the peak hour traffic near Gurgaon-Delhi border. Had everything worked according to my plan, I would have reached my destination by 9pm. It is three hours already and I am still stuck on the expressway.”Sonali Dasgupta, who was stuck in the jam in front of Ambience Mall, said she covered only 15 in 45 minutes. “There is no update from the police. What is wrong? Why this harassment?” she asked.ACP (traffic) Suresh Kumar said, “There was no disruption in Gurgaon. This congestion (towards the capital) was mostly the mix-up of freeing traffic from the Delhi-Jaipur highway and the tailback due to some hiccup at IGIA’s T3. Our officials are trying to streamline the traffic. Cops have been deployed at the major chokepoints near Sirhaul border, Rajiv Chowk, the flyover towards Delhi, Shankar Chowk etc.”According to sources, the traffic started to clear up towards 9.45 pm.