Scorching heat, smell of diesel from vehicles and blaring horns marked the lives of many who, on weekend Saturday and Sunday thought of taking a holy dip in the Ganga. The Ganga Dussehra coinciding on long weekend Nirjala Ekadeshi fest caused major inconvenience to the commuters on the national highway and the connecting links to the highway with congested situations on laltaro bridge, Shankaracharya Chowk, Premnagar Ashram Chowk, Chandi Ghat and Sinhdwar. Not using the alternate hill by pass route the traffic was diverted via Kankhal making the locals struggle to reach their places of business and work. The one km long Chandighat bridge was packed with vehicles coming from Char Dham pilgrimage and Rishikesh on one side and Najibabad road on the other. People were seen walking the whole stretch on the footpath to reach Har ki Pauri leaving their transport behind.
“The one mile long distance between Chilla barrage and Chandighat Chowk was crossed in an hour so one can imagine the pace of vehicles in the Har Ki Pauri area. It took us three hours to reach from Rishikesh to Haridwar while the distance is nearly 35 kms,” said one of the commuters Kiran Sharma.
An employee in SIIDCUl dropped his idea to catch train to Ambala on Sunday owing to the traffic jam since he was in stuck on road while coming from Rudraprayag. Many others were seen walking with bags and baggage and taking to two wheeler rides with cars and auto rickshaws queuing up on all roads.
There were route diversions on most of the roads. The entry of heavy vehicles was stopped from Friday night. The vehicles coming from Dehradun and other hilly areas were made to pass through Chilla route. The vehicles coming from Saharanpur, Yamunanangar were bypassed from Roorkee military crossing to landhaura laksar route Bairagi camp parking. The entry of heavy vehicles was restricted to the mela zone since Tuesday night. The vehicles and buses coming from Moradabad, Najibabad were made to traverse through Nehar Patri Marg and taking Chilla route, sent towards Dehradun.
The traffic problem seems to multiply with each passing day with the highway broadening work not finishing. The rising mercury level is adding to the people’s woes while the local administration and police are passing the buck to National Highways Authority of India for delaying the highway work who in turn cite non availability of consent from Uttar Pradesh or forest authorities. The net result is traffic snarls for hours on the national highway on weekends. So next time you step out of house for a weekend in Haridwar be prepared for traffic jams.