'Unprecedented' number of New Year revellers shut down traffic

NEW DELHI: More than two lakh people revelling in traditionally vibrant New Year celebrations at key landmarks in Delhi and the partial closure of the busy Lajpat Nagar flyover led to heavy traffic jam across the national capital today.

The city came almost to a standstill as the traffic jam in south and central Delhi due to the closure of one of the carriageways of the Lajpat Nagar flyover for repair, spilled over to other areas, making life difficult for commuters.

As the situation worsened, traffic police department officials began managing the movement of vehicles manually and switched off the traffic signalling system on several roads.


Many attempted to take the Delhi Metro, but several stations, including Central Secretariat, ITO, and Rajiv Chowk, were peopled by commuters trying to get into the trains.

An unprecedented number of people visiting the India Gate, Connaught Place, several temples and gurudwaras, led to heavy vehicular traffic on almost all the connecting roads.

The police had to close a part of the India Gate roundabout and the roads leading towards it when the number of people there surged to an unmanageable level.

A large volume of vehicles, a lack of adequate parking space and haphazardly parked cars deteriorated the situation.

At Metro stations the footfall was much higher than the average. The concourse, platforms and carriages were crowded with New Year revellers, heading towards the India Gate.

At Central Secretariat, an interchange point for Yellow Line (Samyapur Badli-Huda City Centre) and Violet Line (Kashmere Gate-Escorts Mujesar), commuters standing in long queues, jostled at the entry and the exit gates.

Travellers crowded the Token Vending Machines (TVMs), while many sat on the ground at Central Secretariat Metro Station.

The partial closure of the Lajpat Nagar flyover for repair hit the traffic in south and central Delhi areas.

"Traffic will remain very heavy near India Gate C-Hexagon due to gathering of more than 1 lakh pedestrian and heavy volume of motorist," the Delhi Traffic Police tweeted had tweeted in the afternoon.

In the evening, the police said an "unprecedented number" of pedestrians was seen at India Gate and surrounding areas.

"The number of pedestrians was three to four times higher than the last year. The crowd swelled to about 2.5 lakh due to various reasons," Dipendra Pathak, special commissioner, traffic police, said.

Heavy to very heavy traffic choked several roads, including those near the Chattarpur Mandir and Sai Mandir. Devotees gathered at the Bangla Sahib Gurudwara congested the roads near the RML hospital, Baba Kharag Singh Marg and the GPO.

Chaos prevailed on Bhairon Marg and adjoining roads as the number of people converging at Pragati Maidan and Delhi Zoo steadily grew.

Ambulances carrying patients were seen stuck in heavy traffic jams on some roads.

The traffic police deployed several teams to clear the roads. Vehicular traffic was diverted to open the bottlenecks after the situation remaining out of gears for hours.