Major traffic snarls threw life out of gear for office goers during the evening hours on major arterial roads in the Central and New Delhi district area on Thursday owing to the last day of the India International Trade Fair (IITF) 2014 at Pragati Maidan. The intensity of the rush could be imagined by the fact it took around an hour for motorists to reach ITO intersection signal from Mandi House.
Bumper-to-bumper traffic was seen near ITO intersection, Feroz Shah Road, Mandi House, Vikas Marg, Geeta Colony, Mathura Road stretch from Ashram Chowk to Kalkaji and from DND flyway to South Extension. Commuters travelling from East Delhi had a harrowing time while coming towards Central Delhi area as traffic moved at snail’s pace. Crowd starting pulling at the trade fair from 11 am onwards and reached its peak in the later hours of the day. Major congestion was reported at around 6 pm when the office goers also had to rush back home. Despite elaborate arrangements made by the Delhi Traffic Police the look on the roads and the stranded vehicles could reveal the situation.
“Usually it takes me around half an hour to travel from Mayur Vihar to ITO, but today it took me approximately one hour to travel the same distance. Roads were totally jampacked and just when the signal went green, it again went red,” said Rohit, a resident of Mayur Vihar Phase-I.
Major roadblocks were also reported in areas near Paschim Vihar due to ongoing construction and also because major chunk of traffic police force has been deployed at Pragati Maidan due to trade fair, said a traffic police official. Meanwhile, areas like Geeta Colony, Vikas Marg, ITO intersection, Minto Bridge, Sikandra Road, Mandi House came to a standstill from 5 pm to 8 pm owing to the trade fair rush. People had switched of the ignition and patiently sat in their cars as the signals switched from green to red. Commuters moving towards South Delhi had a tough time as well as Bhairon Marg, Mathura Road were choked with vehicles. Even though a foot overbridge (FoB) is available for the people to cross the roads they chose to walk on the roads which made the vehicular movement difficult.