The four major centres of pilgrimage in Uttarakhand- Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri- are witnessing a phenomenal rush this year after the Char Dham Yatra kicked off earlier in April. Amidst the never ending problems of long traffic snarls on the national highway which passes through the city entering the ‘Gateway to Gods’, the pilgrim rush continues to fuel congestion in the city especially at major intersections with the worst scenario being experienced on the weekends.
The construction of flyover on the National Highway near Singh Dwar and other pending road works of broadening of National Highway along the stretch enroute to Rishikesh and Dehradun are the major bottlenecks causing the traffic jams. At places, the highway has been broadened to the maximum limit but at most of the junctures, the work is half done. On narrow bridges, the vehicles are bound to crawl at snail’s pace.
Scorching heat, smell of diesel coming from vehicle exhausts and blaring horns marked the lives of many this weekend. The Amavasya and Purnima (dark moon and full moon) bathing days coinciding on long weekends made life very inconvenient for the commuters on the national highway and the connecting roads to the highway with chock a block situations on laltaro bridge, Shankaracharya Chowk, Premnagar Ashram Chowk, Chandighat and Singh Dwar. The alternate hill by pass route which remains closed, forced the administrative officials to divert the traffic via Kankhal area making the localites jostle through narrow lanes to reach their shops and places of work.
A commuter from Dehradun, Sudhir Verma said, “The one mile long distance between Chandighat and Shankaracharya Chowk was covered in 40 minutes so one can imagine the pace of vehicles in the Har Ki Paidi area. It took us five hours to reach Haridwar from Dehradun covering a distance of about 40 kilometres.”
A couple travelling in a roadways bus dropped their idea to catch a train to Delhi on Sunday owing to the traffic jam. Pankaj Shah from Muni ki Reti in Rishikesh said, “I and my wife along with our grandson started for Haridwar in morning in the hope of catching the train to Delhi from Haridwar. But now we are staying here for the day since we missed the departure of two trains to Delhi due to traffic snarls on the national highway. Now the only option is to start our journey on Monday.”
The traffic problem seems to multiply with each passing day and the highway widening work doesn’t appear to be coing to an end. The rising level of mercury 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. The net result is traffic snarls for many hours on the national highway on the weekends.
Not only the tourists but the local residents also feel the heat on the weekends during May and June in the tourist season with the routine life of denizens thrown out of gear. The pressure on roads starts increasing on Friday afternoon when people from northern parts of India start arriving for the long weekend. The situation persists till Monday, the start of the week.