The arterial roads in lutyens’ Delhi witnessed severe traffic congestion and jams due to the heavy footfall at the World Food India festival which opened at India Gate on Friday.
The VVIP movement, including the arrival of large number of delegates at the food festival, choked the roads in lutyens’ Delhi affecting vehicular movement on other roads as well, a senior traffic police official said.
Nearly 3,000-4,000 delegates were present at the inaugural function at Vigyan Bhawan and at the venue of the event at India Gate. The traffic situation was further worsened by the large number of vehicles on the roads.
Traffic spilled over to Vikas Marg from Bhairon Marg where a parking space was arranged for the visitors of the food festival.
This caused heavy traffic on Vikas Marg from laxmi Nagar to ITO.
The Delhi Traffic Police alerted commuters on its official twitter handle about the heavy traffic near India Gate and other parts of the city.
“Traffic is heavy at C-Hexagon (India Gate) due to VVIP movement,” they tweeted, suggesting commuters to avoid the area.
The roads heading to India Gate, including Kasturba Gandhi Marg, Ashoka Road, Akbar Road, Shahjahan Road and Zakir Hussain Marg, were also clogged due to barricading by police to divert traffic away from the venue.
The three-day festival is being organised by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries at the India Gate lawns. Delegates from over two dozen countries, those from different Indian States, and the food processing
industry, are participating
in the event.