Commuters here were left frustrated as massive traffic jams hit Delhi following heavy showers on Friday afternoon.
Waterlogged roads across the Capital meant even the best of the stretches witnessed bumper-to-bumper traffic. In fact, many commuters resorted to walking in the rain to the nearest metro station in a bid to escape the jam.
Several took to the social media to express their anger at the situation and sought permanent imposition of the odd-even rule.
While almost no part of the city was spared, among the worst-affected areas were New Delhi’s Connaught Place, Ashoka Road, Chanakyapuri, ITO and Minto Road, and South Delhi’s Moti Bagh, Lajpat Nagar, Ashram, Moolchand and Khanpur.
Several stretches in East, West and North Delhi too left commuters cursing as they had little or no option but to take a detour. On many stretches, three-lane roads turned into one lane due to heavy water-logging.
“On three separate occasions, I was stuck for at least 45 minutes each while travelling in South Delhi. I finally abandoned my cab and took a metro from Lajpat Nagar station,” said Pavithra Swami, a government servant.
Tech-savvy commuters resorted to checking alternate routes on their Google Map application, but that proved futile as red lines, indicating heavy traffic, greeted them across the screen.
“The auto driver threatened to drop me off at an unknown place unless I agreed to pay him triple the charge by metre. We had travelled just 500 metres in an hour,” said Rajeev Saxena, an IT employee in East Delhi.
Many commuters described it as the “worst traffic jam” they had witnessed in the city. Some jams extended for several kilometres, leaving even emergency vehicles like ambulances stuck for hours.
The situation was compounded by the breaking down of vehicles, particularly DTC buses. The traffic police had deployed additional personnel on the roads to tackle the situation, but commuters were apparently unimpressed, as was visible from their tweets.