Bhubaneswar: Even as Commissionerate Police had claimed to have made elaborate arrangements to ensure smooth traffic movement during Dussehra, people had a harrowing time on main roads of Odisha capital on Friday evening.
According to sources, people in large came out in their vehicles to go for shopping and pandal hopping on the occasion of ‘sasthi puja’ (sixth day puja) of Devi Durga in the city in the afternoon. The vehicular traffic on different arterial roads started selling as evening set in. At around 7 pm, all major roads were choked with the vehicles moving bumper to bumper.
The vehicle riders’ woes spilled over on the roads from Rasulgarh to Khandagiri, Chandrasekharpur to Airport, Vani Bihar to Rajmahal and Rabi Talkies Square to Laxmisagar in the city. The vehicular traffic was so heavy that it took almost an hour to move 100 metre from 6 pm to 9 pm.
Even the National Highway (NH) and flyovers inside the city witnessed unprecedented traffic congestion. Hundreds of heavy vehicles including long distance buses were virtually stranded on the NH stretch from Vani Vihar to Khandagiri. The public transport and emergency service vehicles like ambulances also did not get the space to move.
The situation at major puja mandaps of Nayapalli, Rasulgarh, Khandagiri, Bomikhal, Baramunda, Unit II market and Ashok Nagar went beyond control as the roads beside the pandals were choked with vehicles that remained immobile for hours together.
The Commissionerate Police and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) had earlier announced that all arrangements were in place for a grand celebration of Dussehra in the city. The two authorities had expected huge turnout of the people at the puja pandals as community Durga Puja was being allowed with public participation after a break of 2 years due to COVID restrictions.
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