Hundreds of people thronged bazaar areas as last-minute Deepavali shopping led to city roads witnessing traffic congestion on Wednesday.
Most of the roads, R.K.V. Road, Panneerselvam Park, Manikoondu, Meenatchi Sundaranar Road, Perundurai Road, Sathy Road, Mettur Road, Gandhiji Road and narrow stretches in market and commercial areas were filled with shoppers throughout the day. Shops selling textiles, crackers, mobile phones and household items were thronged by people as COVID-19 norms went for a toss. Despite police personnel, through the public address system, asking the people to wear masks and ensure personal distancing, the crowd focused only on purchase.
Drizzle failed to dampen the festive spirit as the massive crowd caused traffic congestion on almost all the arterial roads that led to the city. Though movement of buses was banned in shopping areas, movement of other vehicles, including four-wheelers, caused inconvenience to pedestrians.
In the bus stand, people waited to board special buses to move to their native. Most of the special buses were over-crowded during the day as workers in other districts returned to their native. At the railway station, the crowd was unusual as passengers in large numbers arrived to board trains.
In Salem, both the new bus stand and the old bus stand were thronged by commuters in large numbers throughout the day. Most of the bazaar streets in the city witnessed huge crowds right from the morning. However, cracker sellers said that their business was not up to the expected level due to the rain.
