Scorching heat, smell of diesel from vehicles and honking horns marked the lives of many on Sunday who thought of covering short distances to reach their final destination. The Badh Amavasya coinciding on long weekend made life hell of the commuters on the National highway and the connecting links to the highway with chock o block situations on laltaro bridge, Shankaracharya chownk, Prem Nagar ashram chownk, Chandi ghat and Singh dwar. Not using the alternate hill by pass route the traffic was diverted via Kankhal making the localites struggling to reach their business shops and places of work.
“The one mile long distance between Chandighat and Shankaracharya chownk was covered in 40 minutes so one can imagine the pace of vehicles in the Har Ki pauri area stretch. It took us 5 hours to reach Haridwar from Dehradun while the distance is nearly 60 kms,” said leena who had come from Dehradun with her sister in law for gang snan in her own car.
A couple travelling in roadways bus dropped their idea to catch train to Delhi on Sunday owing to the traffic jam. Muneri lal from Muni ki reti Rishikesh told the Pioneer, “I and my wife along with grandson started for Haridwar in morning in the hope to catch train for Delhi from Haridwar. But now we are staying here for the day since two trains to Delhi have been missed and now the only option is to start our journey on Monday. While stuck in traffic jam, someone guided us for Alaknanda hotel ghat so we came here to beat the heat in ganga.”
The traffic problem seems to multiply with each passing day and the highway broadening work not taking an end. The rising mercury is adding to the people’s woes while the local administration and police are passing the buck to National highway authority of India for delaying the highway work who inturn reason for non availability of consent from UP or forest authorities.
The net result is traffic snarls for hours long on the national highway on weekends. So be prepared for traffic jams while coming to holy city on weekends.