Blockade paralyses Noida, Gzb

Traffic between Noida and Delhi was majorly gridlocked on Thursday afternoon after the police blocked hundreds of farmers of Gautam Budh Nagar from marching to Parliament House in Delhi to press their demands for hiked land compensation and associated benefits.

- Arun Singh

The gridlock kept growing in size till late evening and also spilled over to other roads as the protesting farmers, including women and children, stayed put near the Dalit Prerna Sthal on the Delhi-Noida Link Road raising slogans, even as Gatuam Budh Nagar district officials and Delhi and Noida police tried to persuade them to turn back.

Making the traffic situation worse were the barricades, cranes and heavy vehicle placed by the Delhi Police at the Mahamaya flyover, Dalit Prerna Sthal, and Chilla border to stop the protesters.

Such was the jam that commuters remained stuck on the road till around 7pm; the tailbacks were reminiscent of the year-long farmers' agitation between November 2020 and December 2021, when agricultural workers agitating against the Centre's three farm laws had camped at Delhi's borders in Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri, throwing traffic out of gear. That agitation was later called off after the Parliament repealed the laws on November 29, 2021.

Commuters also reported major snarls on the DelhiMeerut expressway and Delhi's borders with Ghaziabad near UP Gate. "The slow traffic persisted for about two hours," said Swatantra Kumar Singh, ACP (Indirapuram).

As the Delhi-Noida Link Road and Noida-Greater Noida Expressway remained blocked because of the protest, the traffic spilled over to other internal roads and commuters had a harrowing time in reaching their destinations.