Diversion, barricading jam main arteries

Allahabad: Barricading of streets, traffic diversions followed by devotees’ rush jammed the main arteries of the city on Wednesday.
Locals continued to face unwanted jams on streets leading to Kumbh mela campus.

Commuters on Sohbatiyabagh and adjoining areas had to wait for hours for the the traffic to clear due to barricading of streets. To ease rush, people coming from Balson crossing and heading towards Kumbh mela were directed to Alopibagh road. Anjali, a commuter said: “Traffic police authorities have diverted traffic movement on streets leading to Kumbh but unnecessary barricading and diversion plans have left us confused.”

“We were trapped in massive jam near Sohbatiyabagh road when we were on our way to Jhunsi from Civil Lines,” said Vinay Mehrotra adding “we were trapped in jam for more than 45 minutes and faced unwanted trouble due to traffic restrictions,” he added.

As the volume of vehicles inching towards Jhunsi, Alopibagh, Daraganj and Baihrana was quite high, the deployment of traffic policemen have failed to serve the purpose.

Another commuter, Rukhmani said: “It took more than an hour to reach Arial from my house located at Tagoretown area.” She added: “the worst jam was seen at Sohbatiyabagh and Alopibagh roads and traffic police authorities have diverted the route at two points.”

Manu Agarwal said: “We have faced jams at entry and exit points of Kumbh due to heavy flow of traffic and despite deployment of police forces to regulate traffic, we were trapped for more than an hour in jam.”

Senior traffic police officials, however, claimed that traffic restrictions and diversion plans were made effective to regulate traffic as there was additional pressure of vehicles and devotees leaving Kumbh mela campus.”