Traffic crawls in central Delhi due to Cong protest, waterlogging

Due to special arrangements, there will be heavy traffic movement on these roads, it tweeted.Waterlogging on key stretches also slowed down traffic.A commuter, Deepak Diwan, said he almost missed an important office meeting as he was stuck in a traffic jam on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway.It takes me 50 minutes to reach my office in Karol Bagh from Vaishali but today, the journey was over one-and-a-half hours long because of the traffic snarls.

Traffic came to a standstill in and around central Delhi on Thursday morning due to diversions put in place owing to a Congress protest and the Kanwar Yatra coupled with waterlogging on arterial stretches.

Senior Congress leaders, including some MPs, courted arrest outside its headquarters here during a protest against the questioning of party president Sonia Gandhi by the Enforcement Directorate in the National Herald money laundering case.

Ahead of her appearance, the Delhi Police deployed a huge force and barricaded the entire stretch between Gandhi's residence on Akbar Road and the ED office.

The traffic moved at a snail's pace at several key stretches connecting central Delhi with the rest of the city and satellite towns of Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, and Faridabad.

Some of the arterial roads that witnessed heavy traffic are Delhi-Meerut Expressway, Bhairon Marg-Ring Road junction, ITO, Vikas Marg, Delhi-Noida Direct Flyway, Sarai Kale Khan, India Gate circle, Dhaula Kuan, Rohtak Road, Barapullah elevated corridor and Aurobindo Marg.

Commuters going towards central Delhi were caught in traffic jams in the morning.

''Getting stuck in traffic is a nightmare, which I lived today morning. I reached my office near Rail Bhawan an hour late because of the heavy traffic,'' Kartik Sharma, a Noida resident, told PTI.

Vaishali Katkurwar, a resident of Mayur Vihar-1, shared a similar experience and blamed authorities for the ''traffic mess''.

''It is a complete mess out there. I was stuck in traffic for around half an hour. Authorities are to be blamed for this. Be it a demonstration, a procession or waterlogging, traffic is the first to get affected. They should make arrangements for the smooth flow of traffic,'' she said.

The traffic police took to Twitter to inform commuters about road closures on various routes and advised them to plan their journey accordingly.

''Kindly avoid Motilal Nehru Marg, Akbar Road, Janpath and Man Singh Road between 0900 hrs and 1400 hrs on 21.07.22. Due to special arrangements, traffic movement will not be possible on these roads,'' it said in a series of tweets.

The inward movement of buses will be restricted in New Delhi beyond the Gol Dak Khana junction, Patel Chowk, Windsor Place, Teen Murti Chowk and Prithviraj Road, it said.

''Kindly avoid Gol Methi junction, Tughlak Road Junction, Claridges Junction, Q-point Junction, Sunehri Masjid Junction, Maulana Azad Road Junction and Man Singh Road Junction between 0900 hrs and 1400 hrs on 21.07.22. Due to special arrangements, there will be heavy traffic movement on these roads,'' it tweeted.

Waterlogging on key stretches also slowed down traffic.

A commuter, Deepak Diwan, said he almost missed an important office meeting as he was stuck in a traffic jam on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway.

''It takes me 50 minutes to reach my office in Karol Bagh from Vaishali but today, the journey was over one-and-a-half hours long because of the traffic snarls. The authorities should be held responsible,'' he said.

The Safdarjung observatory, Delhi's primary weather station, recorded 52.4 mm of rainfall on Wednesday.

Later, the traffic police advised commuters to avoid Lutyens' Delhi, stretches of Ashoka Road, Patel Chowk and Pandit Pant Marg from 5 pm onwards because of restrictions on these routes ahead of a BJP procession.

''Kindly avoid Pandit Pant Marg, Gol Dak Khana, Ashoka Road, Patel Chowk, Sansad Marg and Rafi Marg from 5 pm onwards due to special traffic arrangements,'' it said in a tweet.