Traffic Affected As Bharat Jodo Yatra Enters Delhi

Vehicular movement was affected in southeast Delhi in the morning as the yatris marched into the city, and later on in the vicinity of India Gate as they resumed their walk in the afternoon.

New Delhi: Traffic was affected in parts of Delhi on Saturday as the Congress' Bharat Jodo Yatra, led by party leader Rahul Gandhi, entered the city. Vehicular movement was affected in southeast Delhi in the morning as the yatris marched into the city, and later on in the vicinity of India Gate as they resumed their walk in the afternoon after a break.

The traffic police had issued an advisory on Friday cautioning commuters about the routes that were likely to be affected by the yatra. The yatra made its morning halt in the national capital at Ashram chowk at 11 am and later resumed at 1 PM. The yatra is heading towards the Red Fort via the Mathura road, India Gate and ITO.

Police have put up sign boards requesting the yatris to march on the left side of the road. Cars and other vehicles were seen moving at a slow pace due the congestion during the morning phase of the yatra.

A large number of people eager to catch a glimpse of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi thronged the roads, tried to occupy pavements and dividers or wherever they got space.

"We reached Nizamuddin area in one-and-a-half hours from Ashram. There is so much traffic," said Hemant, an autorickshaw driver who was ferrying passengers to drop them at the New Delhi railway station. The distance takes roughly about 25 minutes.

Another commuter, Amit, might miss his train to Ahmedabad. "You want to take out yatra, do it but think of the traffic and the problems people face," he said.

On reaching near Nizamuddin dargah, many passengers were seen carrying their luggage and walking.  One of the commuters, Suman, said no auto is ready to come on this route.  "What we get to hear from auto rickshaw drivers is that since Bharat Jodo yatra is going on, there is traffic jam, so they don't wish to go through that route and so we have not been getting any vehicle," he said.

Rajkumar, who left home to drop his sister to her work, got stuck and she got late for office. "We took almost two hours to reach Jungpura from Badarpur due to this yatra. There is no proper traffic management," he said.

Supriya was out to visit the dargah but decided to go back upon seeing the traffic and the crowd.

"It is like madness here. No management why is traffic allowed on the road where people are walking," she questioned.

The traffic advisory had said the yatra will reach Jai Dev Ashram near Ashram Chowk around 10.30 am and will end at the Red Fort around 4.30 pm.  A large number of pedestrians and vehicles are expected to join the yatra at various points along the route, it had said.  The Yatra which started from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on September 7 has covered nine states so far and is scheduled to culminate in Jammu and Kashmir by the end of January.  The Yatra is on its 108th day and has covered around 3,000 kms in 46 districts across nine states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Telengana, Andra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana. 

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)