Protest march throws traffic out of gear

While Kasturba Gandhi Marg remained out of bounds for traffic for more than an hour,Barakhamba Road had to be closed for at least 30 minutes. However,Traffic Police officers said at least one of the three main roads was kept open for commuters to minimise trouble.

With protestors camping on Janpath,vehicles had to be diverted from Windsor Place — causing traffic to spill over to nearly all the connecting roads. From there,they marched to Jantar Mantar via Ranjit Singh Flyover and Tolstoy Marg,resulting in congestion on the roads connecting Connaught Place.

“There was a spillover effect on the traffic,which led to congestion,even as Janpath,Tolstoy Marg,Kasturba Gandhi Marg and Barakhamba Road had to be closed for traffic for a while,” said Satyendra Garg,Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic).

With traffic coming to a standstill due to the workers’ rally in the Capital,Metro trains saw a sharp increase in ridership on Wednesday. Over 50,000 additional commuters took the Metro to avoid traffic jams in the city. The ridership had gone up to 11.31 lakh passengers by 8 pm.