A huge volume of vehicular traffic because of the long weekend resulted in massive gridlocks along the Bangalore–Mysore highway on Friday.
According to sources in the departments of Police, Public Works, Ports and Inland Transport, vehicles hit the highway at 5 a.m. and the situation worsened by 9 a.m.
The traffic density between Bidadi and Ramanagaram was around 3,000 passenger car unit (PCU) at 7 a.m.
This almost doubled by 9 a.m. The vehicular density on the highway between Ramanagaram and Srirangapatna towns was between 16,000 and 19,000 PCU at 11 a.m., a senior officer at the Public Works Department told The Hindu .
There was bumper-to-bumper traffic at Nidaghatta junction, Kolli Circle and Inspection Bungalow Circle in Maddur. Similar scenes played out in Gejjalagere, Hanakere, Ummadahalli Gate, B.G. Dase Gowda Circle, near Mandya City Municipal Council, Sri Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar Circle, and near M. Visvesvaraya statue in Mandya; and Baburayana Koppalu and the KSRTC bus-stand junction in Srirangapatna.
Similar was the scenario at major junctions on the highway in Bidadi, Ramanagaram and Channapatna.
The vehicle density on the highway is 45,000 PCU on normal days.
However, at least 1.45 lakh vehicles plied on the highway till 4 p.m., an officer at the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said.
The police personnel had a tough time ensuring movement of vehicles, a senior police officer pointed out.
According to him, a majority of the people were going towards various tourist destinations in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, while some others were heading to their native places in Mysore, Chamarajanagar, and Kodagu districts.
