With the BRICS Summit taking place in the Capital on Thursday, road commuters were also inconvenienced with several arterial roads being blocked for regular traffic to facilitate VIP movement.
Sardar Patel Marg, which connects West Delhi, South-west Delhi, Gurgaon, Central and New Delhi, was closed for traffic and led to a pile-up of traffic during morning rush hours. “The Sardar Patel Marg saw the worst congestion, but there was no option but to block the route given the summit was going on,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Satyendra Garg.
Traffic was diverted along the Ridge Road, Simon Bolivar Marg, Shanti Path and Panchsheel Marg.
Mr. Garg agreed that traffic pile up was reported from several locations in the city, including “saturation” at Mathura Road, Lala Lajpat Rai Marg and Zakir Hussain Marg. Some pile up was also reported from Tughlak Road and Lodhi Road areas.
Among other routes that were affected were Mother Teresa Crescent, Kautilya Marg, Panchsheel Marg, Teen Murti Marg, South Avenue, Rajaji Marg, Safdarjang Road, Akbar Road, Krishna Menon Marg, Tughlak Road, Tees January Marg, Aurangzeb Road, Prithviraj Road, Rajesh Pilot Marg, Amrita Shergill Marg and Subramanian Bharati Marg.
The worst hit were office goers who take the Dhaula Kuan, National Highway- 8 route on a daily basis. “I was headed to office in Gurgaon around 9-30 a.m. and was delayed by around 45 minutes because of the problem at NH-8,” said Janakpuri resident Pragya Sahni.
“There was congestion on some routes at the time of movement [of VIPs]…but we tried to clear it before the evening peak hours,” said Mr. Garg, admitting that traffic could have been managed better in some places.
