Traffic diversions for VVIPs leave city roads gridlocked

Jaipur: As the city traffic police focused on smooth passage for VVIPs, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attending the ‘Rising Rajshan Global Investment Summit' on Monday, heavy traffic congestion prevailed on Tonk Road, inside Walled City, and in areas adjacent to the secretariat. "Although no major scheduled diversions were planned, we focused on keeping JLN Marg, Chaura Rasta, Johari Bazar and Hawa Mahal roads free for the movement of delegates. This made the adjacent roads congested," said a traffic official who was on duty at the control room.At Rambagh Circle and JDA Circle, motorists waited at signals for long hours while delegates were taken from hotels to Jaipur Exhibition and Convention Centre (JECC) at the RIICO area in Sanganer. These VVIP vehicles took Bhawani Singh Marg and then JLN Marg to reach the venue.Officials said that after PM Modi left the venue around 1.30pm, the delegates also started leaving one by one to visit tourist destinations of the city. The main problem took place after 5pm when several VVIPs left the venue together and headed back to their respective hotels."During this time, we were compelled to divert traffic on a few stretches of JLN Marg to the parallel Tonk Road. As the peak evening traffic movement started, the situation on roads got worse," the traffic official said.Amit Dixit, a resident of Goner Road in Siddharth Nagar, said, "It took 75 minutes for me to reach B2B crossing from Rambagh Circle. Usually, even during peak hours, I cover the distance within 30 to 40 minutes."