Truck loaded with iron rods overturns on GT road

A truck loaded with iron rods overturned on the flyover near Lovely Professional University (LPU) here on early Thursday morning, triggering a massive traffic jam on the Grand Trunk (GT) road. The accident brought the vehicular movement between Ludhiana and Jalandhar to a halt for several hours.

Commuters were left stranded in long queues of vehicles. Many university students had to walk for nearly 2 kilometres to reach their institution to attend their classes on time. Office-goers, caught in the congestion, expressed their frustration as they missed important morning schedules.

Personnel from the Sadak Surakhya Force (SSF) reached the spot soon after receiving information about the mishap. They rescued the driver, who was trapped inside the overturned vehicle, and shifted him to the Civil Hospital for treatment. A crane was summoned to remove the truck from the road. However, by the time the clearance operation began, traffic had already piled up for several kilometres in both directions on the GT road.

The gridlock stretched from Lovely Professional University up to Chakk Hakim in Phagwara, causing significant inconvenience to commuters. Even after nearly four hours, the traffic movement had not been fully restored, resulting in growing resentment among travellers. Students from the LPU and neighbouring colleges were forced to disembark from buses and walk to their campuses, while several private and public transport vehicles remained stuck in the jam without any movement.

Among those stranded was Kamal Arora, who said he had been on his way to Amritsar to attend his nephew’s wedding, but had been stuck in the jam for the past two hours. Similarly, Shashi Kalia, heading to his office for an urgent meeting, reported being trapped expressing uncertainty over when he would be able to reach his workplace as traffic jam showed no signs of easing.