Commuters had a harrowing time as traffic crawled for several hours on key arterial stretches entering Delhi from the neighbouring cities of Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Noida, due to the barricades put up by the police amid the Bharat Bandh call given by some outfits against the Agnipath Defence recruitment scheme. Delhi and Gurugram police intensified vehicle checking at the Delhi-Gurugram border on National Highway 48, near the Sirhaul border which resulted in a major traffic jam.
The Delhi Police has put up its barricades at the borders and only a few lanes were open for the traffic entering the city which led to massive traffic jams at Delhi's borders, including the entry point from Noida via DND, Chilla border and Ghazipur.
Inside the Capital, Lutyens' Delhi, which was the epicentre of the protests, remained chock-a-block and commuters were left stranded at a number of locations such as Connaught Place, Jantar Mantar, Barapullah corridor, Ring Road, Vikas Marg, and ITO. Several roads were also heavily barricaded in Lutyens' Delhi, which forced commuters to opt for alternate routes, thereby leading to more chaos on the roads. Videos of long queues of vehicles at Delhi's borders emerged on social media while several commuters also took to Twitter to share their woes. "Queues of vehicles remained stranded in a traffic jam on the Noida side of the border due to the barricades put up by the police at DND entry point. It was a massive jam and I was stuck there for over half-an-hour," Saurav Gupta a commuter said.
The Delhi-Gurugram Expressway also witnessed heavy traffic jam due to the Bharat Bandh call. The officials of the Gurugram traffic control room said that the traffic movement on the expressway is slow due to Delhi police putting up barricades on the Delhi-Gurugram border and near the Rajokri flyover.
“Police are updating people about the traffic situation in Gurugram through the official social media handles,” said Ravinder Kumar Tomer, DCP (traffic) adding that while regular vehicles can pass, checks are likely to slow traffic down or lead to jams. More than 1,100 traffic cops have been deployed at all major points," he said.
"The Gurugram police are already on high alert amid the demonstration. The strength of the personnel has already been increased at all the connecting borders of the district. Traffic advisory had been also issued," he said. A massive pile-up was seen on the expressway near the Sirhaul border as the Delhi Police was inspecting every vehicle before it entered the Capital, to ensure law and order. The gridlock began around 8:30 A.M. and grew worse during the peak hours.
Delhi Police warned of strict action against those trying to disrupt the law and order situation, however, no untoward incident was reported.
Since Monday morning, there was heavy security deployment at railways stations across the national Capital and the Government Railway Police Force was also coordinating with its units in the neighbouring States.
