Traffic thrown out of gear

Ludhiana: With farmers pouring into Ludhiana), the vehicular movement was thrown out of gear on Friday. Farmers from various states visited Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) and Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (Gadvasu) to attend the Kisan Mela and Pashu Palan Mela, respectively.
Traffic snarls hit as early as 8am in Ferozepur road, South Canal road, Kitchlu Nagar, Udham Singh Nagar, and aggu Chowk, all leading to the two venues. Officials said despite many parking facilities set up inside and near the campuses to accommodate the visitors, they became full in no time.
Commissioner of police Kaustubh Sharma told TOI, “The traffic pile up was heavy due to the arrival of attendees in huge numbers at kisan mela. This was an unusual situation that all the parking got full in the morning. The routes leading to the venue were choked at PAU and Gadvasu.”
A city resident, Kashish Bhardwaj took to social media with a picture of traffic-packed Ferozepur Road with caption, “Bad traffic situation, I hope the management plans well for social events and CM’s visit.”
Meanwhile, sources in traffic police said 800 people were deployed for VIP duty for the CM's visit and 50 traffic personnel were outsourced for traffic management.