Commuters run into traffic jams on several roads as thousands of pilgrims pour into city
Commuters run into traffic jams on several roads as thousands of pilgrims pour into city
The arrival of the Tukaram Maharaj and Dnyaneshwar Maharaj palkhi processions are auspicious moments for thousands of devotees in the city, but the blocking of several roads by the police becomes a problem for commuters in the city. Traffic was moving at a snail's pace to station road, University road and Karve Road yesterday.
Though enough traffic police were stationed in these areas, it could not ease the woes of commuters. A drive from Corporation to station road around 1.30 pm took almost an hour. According to DCP (Traffic) Manoj Patil, the situation was unavoidable.
"We had earlier decided to stop the traffic from 12.30 pm which we later changed. So commuters were able to travel but at a slow space. We had enough officials posted to take care of any situation," said Patil. He pointed out that because Monday was declared a bandh, those who could not carry out their work that day were out yesterday inspite of notifications that were given out weeks ago.
Certain traffic signals had stopped working and the traffic police officers were seen handling the spots on their own. The confusion at traffic signals was the worst part as officials were unable to cope with the number of vehicles.
Patil said that the traffic jams had nothing to do with the signals and were bound to happen. "Commuters should avoid travelling from Sholapur Road on Wednesday as the condition will be similar," he said.
Traffic police had to use barricades to stop vehicles on the road leading to Juna Bazar. Only after the previous lot of vehicles had moved ahead, they were removing the barricades to let the rest move ahead. There was total chaos as buses, trucks, cars, two-wheelers and cycles were all trying to move together.
Akshat Agarwal, a freelance writer, who was travelling via Senapati Bapat Road, called MiD DAY to say traffic near Shivajinagar Road had almost come to a halt for a while. "We were on the one-way bridge and all theu00a0 space was chock-a-block with vehicles for almost 15 minutes."
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(With inputs from Vivek Sabnis)
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