The assurance given by the police about smooth flow of traffic during the Vidhan Sabha session failed just at the clock struck 10 in the morning on Monday. On the first day of the two-day Vidhan Sabha session commuters had to face traffic congestion on several points in the city with those living near Vidhan Sabha having to wait for a long time or opt a longer route for reaching their destination during VIP movements.
Despite the route plan made by the district traffic department commuters had to face traffic congestion especially at Rispana bridge, Araghar Chowk, Rajpur Road, East Canal Road, Clock Tower, Tehsil Chowk and Saharanpur Chowk. With the summer break in school and colleges going on and no protest march or rally scheduled on Monday, there was some relief. However, despite that just the four barriers erected by the police created enough blockage for the heavy traffic passing from ISBT towards Doiwala, on Haridwar Road and beyond via Rispana bridge.
A commuter passing through EC road said, “Now we are used to it. If the assembly session is ongoing that means it will be traffic jam today. The roads tend to remain clogged with traffic anyway on Mondays and Tuesdays.”
Dehradun Superintendent of Police (traffic) Prakash Chandra Arya said, “We have deployed additional forces from police stations on traffic duty. With increasing number of vehicles in the city naturally there was some congestion. Traffic flow could have been slow but there was no traffic jam.”
Observers state that with Char Dham Yatra and tourist season ongoing the two-day Vidhan Sabha session is adding to the existing traffic related problems in the provisional state capital.