Festive frenzy slows down traffic in Bhubaneswar

BHUBANESWAR: The capital city’s roads witnessed heavy traffic on Monday as thousands visited the pandals on Ashtami. At many places, the traffic was moving at a snail’s pace taking around 15 to 20 minutes to cover a distance of 200 metres.
The number of policemen deployed was inadequate owing to huge crowds in front of puja pandals. Parking of vehicles on the roads added to the chaos and woes of commuters.
People got out of their homes taking advantage of the weather, which was dry with cool breeze blowing for most part of the day. The rush of vehicles was quite unmanageable with most big puja pandals like Rasulgarh, Saheed Nagar, Nayapalli, Bomikhal, Laxmi Sagar, Old Station Bazaar, Baramunda, Saheed Nagar, Ashok Nagar and Unit-I having come up along the main roads.
“Traffic did not choke or halt at any place. The number of vehicles on the road increased several times during the festival leading to congestion. For traffic management, eight platoons of police have been deployed while towing of vehicles parked on the road is going on. Besides, heavy vehicles have been diverted from Pitapalli and from Tuesday vehicles will be diverted from Khurda on NH-16,” said Swostik Panda, ACP traffic.
Traffic further slowed down as people gathered on the road to enjoy the cultural programmes in the evening. “This year, we are experiencing a new trend of increasing traffic flow as the night advances.,” said Panda.
Commuters, however, alleged that there is no adequate parking space and police have been harassing common people for no fault of theirs. “Police should first earmark sufficient parking places before imposing fine or towing the vehicles,” said Subash Sahu, a pandal hopper. “We have been urging the public not to park their vehicles here and there and try to use two-wheeler or car-pooling while visiting pandals. We have towed several vehicles parked illegally,” Panda added.