Ahead of Diwali, heavy traffic congestion seen on Gurugram-Delhi Expressway; video surfaces

Ahead of Diwali, massive traffic congestion was seen on Gurugram-Delhi Expressway on Friday evening and a video surfaced showing the extent of the snail-paced traffic on the expressway in the wake of festive weekend.

A video of the massive traffic snarl at the Gurugram-Delhi Expressway went viral om social media as the Diwali weekend nears. In the video, hundreds of cars can be seen stuck in an almost standstill traffic.

Despite being eight-laned, the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway sees traffic snarls on a daily basis but the situation got even worse on Friday, which could be partly attributed to the Dhanteras rush. Hindus consider Dhanteras, first day that marks Diwali in most of India, an extremely auspicious day for making new purchases, especially of gold or silver articles and new utensils.

Traffic in the national capital on Friday was affected at several places as the city witnessed intermittent rain and people thronged the markets on Dhanteras, causing inconvenience to commuters.

The Delhi police has also issued an advisory suggesting that high volume of traffic is expected on the roads during Dhanteras and Diwali and advised commuters to take public transport, officials said on Friday.

Several commuters took to X to complain about the traffic congestion in the city. A person posted on X that there was a massive traffic jam from Gurugram border till Mahipalpur and an ambulance was stuck there.

X users also said there was traffic congestion on teh stretch from Mangolpuri underpass to Udyog Nagar Metro Station, near Rani Bagh main market, Kalyanpuri Bridge, Dwarka flyover, and on Ashram Flyover.

“Traffic is affected on Vikas Marg in the carriageway from ITO towards Laxmi Nagar due to uprooted of a tree. Kindly avoid the stretch,” the traffic police wrote on X. The tree was later removed from the spot.

According to the advisory, the festival of Dhanteras and Diwali will be celebrated on Friday and Sunday respectively.

“Pre-Diwali high volume of traffic is expected on the city roads especially around shopping malls and around busy high footfall market areas including at Chandni Chowk, Khari Baoli, Connaught Place, Karol Bagh, Sarojini Nagar, Sadar Bazar, Central Market Lajpat Nagar, Nehru Place, Greater Kailash, Tilak Nagar, Gandhi Nagar, Kamla Nagar and Rajouri Garden.

“To avoid inconvenience, save time, fuel and reduce pollution, general public is advised to utilise the services of public transport like bus, metro and car pool etc. Connecting with social-media services of Delhi Traffic Police and traffic help line will further help in planning a hassle-free travel accordingly,” the advisory stated.

On Friday, heavy traffic was witnessed at Delhi-Meerut Expressway as well.

With inputs from PTI