Traffic snarls in Capital as Delhi ushers in 2024

Heavy, bumper-to-bumper traffic plagued the residents of Delhi on Monday as revellers celebrating the new year thronged India Gate and famous temples across the city, such as Akshardham Temple and Gurdwara Bangla Sahib.

- Hemani Bhandari

The traffic snarls led to complaints about unavailability of transport and some people took to social media to share their grievances with the Delhi Traffic Police, officials said on Monday.

Vehicular movement was impacted on all the roads leading to the India Gate, including Copernicus Marg, Akbar Road, Ashoka Road, Shahjahan Road and Mandir Marg. Traffic crawled in outer and inner circles of Connaught Place, ITO, Pragati Maidan, Desh Bandhu Gupta Road, Chandni Chowk, Mathura Road, Najafgarh Road, Sarai Kale Khan and Mukarba Chowk.

According to a senior traffic police officer, nearly 50,000 to 70,000 people were expected to visit India Gate on January 1 and arrangements were made accordingly.

"We shared advisories on social media and other platforms and directed people to use public transport and not private vehicles. Traffic police officials were deployed at key points to help ease traffic movement in case the volume of people increased," the officer said.