With the Kanwariya pilgrimage going on in full swing in Haridwar, the commuters are at the receiving end of the long traffic jams it is spawning on important roads of the city.
A huge traffic jam continuing for several hours was witnessed on Haridwar -Nazibabad road on Monday. With little options left with the stream of pilgrims arriving incessantly, the police had stopped the entry of heavy vehicles into the city on Monday which resulted in miles- long queue of stuck- up vehicles near Rasiabadh forest range on both sides of the road.
Things, however, seemed to have eased a little on Tuesday. But the commuters say that the time it takes now to commute on the roads is nearly the double of what it takes during the normal time.
A daily commuter from Shyamli, Vivek Wadhwan said, “It has taken me nearly five hours to reach Haridwar from Shyamli as I was stuck up in the long queues of vehicles with stranded trucks lining up both sides of the Haridwar- Nazibabad road. We do not grudge the suffering as it is the time of the annual pilgrimage.
However, the administration should have geared up beforehand to handle the swelling number of the devotees thronging the holy city during this time of the year,” he said.
When asked, CO traffic Prakash Deoli said that with around 95% of the Kanwariyas coming from the Bijnor and other places of Uttar Pradesh, they were indeed having problems to manage things on the roads. “The number of the pilgrims surged up drastically on Monday. The traffic police in adequate number was rushed to the roads to ease the ordeal for the commuters. In view of the steps we took, traffic is moving a bit more smoothly on Tuesday,” he said.