VIP movement,R-Day rehearsals bring city to a crawl

The Prime Ministers visit to AIIMS,coupled with President Pratibha Patils visit to Siri Fort and the Republic Day rehearsals,threw Delhis traffic out of gear on Friday.

The police had made large-scale changes to the traffic plan along the parade route diverting vehicles to alternate roads. Due to traffic restrictions in almost the whole of Central Delhi,especially the Lutyens zone,people were seen waiting for the roads to be cleared for traffic.

Traffic jams were seen on some roads connecting South and Central Delhi and northern parts of the city,with vehicles moving at a snails pace.

Mathura Road saw particularly heavy traffic till the afternoon,as all the traffic crossing India Gate was diverted on to it. Bus services along the parade routes were also suspended temporarily,which caused problems for a large number of commuters. Motorists also had a tough time on the Ring Road.

Around 1 pm,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reached AIIMS,in the run-up to which the traffic police had stopped traffic in some parts for a few minutes.

The entire Ring Road stretch from Lajpat Nagar to Dhaula Kuan saw bumper-to-bumper traffic. Commuters using the Dhaula Kuan-Gurgaon road too complained of a traffic jam in the afternoon.

In the evening,around 5.30 pm,President Pratibha Patil went for a visit to Siri Fort. We had managed traffic very well during the parade. It was only towards the evening that the traffic was a little slow in South Delhi, S N Shrivastava,joint commissioner (Traffic),said.

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