New Delhi: The heart of the national capital came to a standstill on Monday evening as more than two and a half lakh revelers descended on India Gate to celebrate the New Year. The figure was seven times the estimation of the traffic police.
The jam-packed roads had a spiraling effect, and soon, bumper-to-bumper traffic made life difficult for commuters in Connaught Place and major intersections in south Delhi as well.
As the situation worsened, officials of the traffic police department began managing the movement of vehicles manually and switched off the traffic signalling system on several roads. More than 50 cops were stationed at the India Gate axis alone, but could do little to control the unprecedented situation.
Many commuters attempted to take the Delhi Metro, but several stations, including Central Secretariat, ITO, and Rajiv Chowk, got bogged down by so many commuters trying to get into the trains.
An unprecedented number of people visiting the India Gate, Connaught Place, several temples and gurudwaras, led to heavy vehicular traffic on almost all the connecting roads.
The police had to close a part of the India Gate roundabout and the roads leading towards it when the number of people there surged to an unmanageable level.
A large volume of vehicles, a lack of adequate parking space and haphazardly parked cars deteriorated the situation. At Metro stations the footfall was much higher than the average. The concourse, platforms and carriages were crowded with New Year revellers, heading towards the India Gate.
The partial closure of the Lajpat Nagar flyover for repair also hit the traffic in south and central Delhi areas.
"Traffic will remain very heavy near India Gate C-Hexagon due to gathering of more than 1 lakh pedestrian and heavy volume of motorists," the Delhi Traffic Police tweeted in the afternoon.
In the evening, the police said an "unprecedented number" of pedestrians was seen at India Gate and surrounding areas. "The number of pedestrians was three to four times higher than the last year. The crowd swelled to about 2.5 lakh due to various reasons," Dipendra Pathak, special commissioner, traffic police, said.
Heavy to very heavy traffic choked several roads, including those near the Chattarpur Mandir and Sai Mandir. Devotees gathered at the Bangla Sahib Gurudwara congested the roads near the RML hospital, Baba Kharak Singh Marg and the GPO.
Chaos prevailed on Bhairon Marg and adjoining roads as the number of people converging at Pragati Maidan and Delhi Zoo steadily grew. Ambulances carrying patients were seen stuck in heavy traffic jams on some roads.
The traffic police deployed several teams to clear the roads. Vehicular traffic was diverted to open the bottlenecks after the situation remained out of gears for hours.
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