Traffic jams mar X-mas fervour

Gaurav Kanthwal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 25

The Christmas fervour overflowed on to the tricity roads as massive rush was witnessed for most part of the day on the main roads. It started building up in the day time and by the evening, it was choc-a-block situation around major commercial hubs.

The main road from Tribune Chowk to the Transport light points witnessed bumper-to-bumper traffic as vehicles moved towards shopping malls in the Industrial Area, Chandigarh. Revellers heading to Shimla for the Christmas celebrations got stuck in massive traffic jams on the Chandigarh-Mani Majra road. With severe cold weather predicted in the coming days, youngsters and families are headed uphill in the hope of witnessing the fresh snowfall.

“We are caught in the traffic jam here only. God only knows when we will reach Shimla,” said Bharti Arora, a resident of Ambala.

At the Industrial Area, a massive vehicular movement kept the traffic police on their toes as frequent traffic jams were witnessed.

The daily commute on the Chandigarh-Zirakpur went haywire in the evening as queues stretching up to 1 km were witnessed.

The Patiala chowk, VIP Road, Zirakpur-Shimla light point under the flyover and the K-area light point remained clogged for most part of the day. Long queues of vehicles were seen on the flyover towards the Chandigarh side around 6 pm.

Residents of Zirakpur said it was a nightmarish situation on the roads as there was chaos on the road in the evening.

Commuters said the vehicular underpass under construction near Chandigarh-Zirakpur border is turning out to be an excruciating bottleneck even on normal days and the makeshift arrangement on the slip road is just not enough. “The Punjab PWD and the NHAI urgently need to widen the road to ensure a smooth flow of traffic. Given the construction work will take more than a year, diverting the traffic on the slip roads is not the solution. Now that the digging work has begun on the Zirakpur-Chandigarh road side, the traffic jams have increased,” said Shristi Sachdeva, teacher of a government school who commutes from Chandigarh to Dera Bassi daily.

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