Without prior info,residents suffer due to blocked roads

Traffic was disrupted at various places as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited the city on Saturday,leaving behind inconvenience for commuters. Many parts of the city roads were closed to make way for the PM to pass through as he was guided with heavy security by the Special Protection Group (SPG) and the Chandigarh Police. The police claimed that it was an inevitable situation and that a “relay system” was used to minimise traffic jams.

The PM,who was on a visit to the city for a few hours,reached the Chandigarh Airport at 10.30 am. From there onwards,his cavalcade moved towards Sector 29-31 roundabout to Police Lines,Sector 26. The cavalcade then moved towards Raj Bhavan to Sukhna Lake. Thereafter,it crossed Vidhan Sabha reaching PGI from where it headed towards Khudha Ali Sher village. From there,it went to Botanical Garden and finally to Dhanas. The PM spend over an hour at Dhanas,the site of the event,and left for Raj Bhavan,where he had lunch. The PM took a flight back to Delhi at around 2.35 pm.

Talking to Chandigarh Newsline,Inspector General R P Upadhyaya said,“The inconvenience caused to the public was inevitable. To minimise traffic jams,we used the technique of relay system. As soon as the PM and his cavalcade crossed a particular road,we immediately opened it for public use and closed the next road to be used by the PM,and opening it again after crossing it by his cavalcade.” However,a lot of chaos was witnessed at Sector 25/38 dividing road leading to Dhanas as the police had completely closed one side of the road.

Many residents faced trouble in reaching their destination as they had to take alternate routes. Amanpreet Kaur,an employee at PGI said,“Since the main gate of the hospital was closed,patients had to use the new OPD gate to enter the hospital,creating confusion for people who were unaware about the temporary change.”