Commuters headed towards Connaught Place and Parliament Street here this morning had to face hardships due to the international cycling test event for Commonwealth Games.
Many were unaware about the traffic diversions due to lack of prior publicity as the routes were finalised at the last minute.
The traffic between 6:30 am and 1:00 pm on Parliament Street, Ashoka Road, Janpath and Barkhamba Road were affected due to the event, a senior police official said.
“We did not know about this. The authorities should have given publicity to this event. Then we could have altered our plans accordingly. Our Sunday got spoilt,” said Anjuman Sinha, who had to take a long route to reach Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital from Ashoka Road.
Police officials said being a Sunday, there was not much traffic on the roads.
The event started at about 6 am. However, the main International Cycling Event 100 km for men started at 10.30 am and got over by around 1.00 pm followed by the prize distribution ceremony.
The event started from Sansad Marg and passed through Patel Chowk, Red Cross Road, Rail Bhawan, Dr Rajendra Prasad Road, Janpath, Vijay Chowk and Barakhamba Road.
“No traffic were allowed on the route of cycling events from the night intervening August 28 and 29. Cross-traffic on this route were also not allowed from 5.00 am till completion of the event,” the official said.
Traffic was restricted on entire Parliament Street, Ashoka Road from Gole Dak Khana upto round—about near Buta Singh Road, Red Cross Road, Dr Rajendra Prasad Road, Janpath from Maulana Azad Road crossing upto Meridian hotel and from Janpath Tolstoy upto Rajiv Chowk.
Other routes which were affected were Rajpath from Man Singh crossing upto Rashtrapathi Bhavan main gate, entire roads connecting Vijay Chowk, Rafi Marg from Sunehri Masjid upto Sansad Marg, Outer Circle of Rajiv Chowk from Minto circle upto Baba Kharak Singh circle and entire Inner Circle of Rajiv Chowk.
