A day ahead of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Dehradun visit, a mock drill, conducted by police to check the security preparedness, threw the traffic out of gear on various roads across the city on Monday. Police making the Parade Ground area zero-zone have further compounded the on- the -road miseries of the commuters.
The commuters who were right on the roads after 10 am were inconvenienced with the vehicles found lined up bumper to bumper at the important crossings for a considerably long while.
Police installing barricades and diverting routes with the mock drill on around noonadded to the ordeal for the commuters. Full dress rehearsal was conducted during which VVIPs’ fleets crossed various roads to reach Parade Ground.
The people at the receiving end of things, traffic either crawled or got stuck at several important roads like Survey Chowk, Dilaram Chowk, Mussoorie Diversion Road Clock Tower, Ballupur Chowk and Balliwala Chowk. Things were at their worst in and around Rispana.
Students from schools and colleges bore the maximum brunt of the traffic snarl as they emerged out of them on way back home. Normally roads remain extra congested on every Monday because of the rush of the people who leave Dehradun to reach their offices in other districts.
Things on the road were such that the traffic police had hardly to do anything to unknot the enormous congestion. Umesh Bisht, a DAV (PG) College student, found stuck at Survey Chowk, said he had been bearing the plight for around 20 minutes with VVIP fleet moving towards Parade Ground.
Ramesh Uniyal, another commuter found waiting for the ordeal to end at the same crossing, said they were habituated to facing the jam daily. “Our suffering compounds when the VVIPs visit the city. However, we have to put up with such trial as there is no other option left to us,” he grumbled.
The traffic congestion and resulting travails faced by the citizens in Dehradun on Monday has once again elicited focus on the trend of the public being made to suffer varied problems including traffic jams which may at times have severe consequences, whenever a prominent elected public representative, constitutional position holder or politician visits town.