Bhubaneswar: The festive fervour of Durga Puja in Odisha capital has taken a severe toll on daily commuting, with massive traffic gridlocks paralysing major thoroughfares across Bhubaneswar. Commuters, emergency services, and patients have been left stranded for hours as festive crowds throng puja pandals.
The traffic congestion has severely impacted key transit corridors throughout the city. Major stretches, including Rasulgarh, Vani Vihar, Jaydev Vihar, Raj Mahal, Kalpana Square, and the route towards Patia, have witnessed intense gridlocks. Distances that typically take motorists just a few minutes are currently stretching into half-hour delays or longer during peak hours.
The severe gridlocks have raised alarming concerns for critical emergency services. On Tuesday evening, two ambulances transporting patients were trapped in bumper-to-bumper traffic between Damana and Patia for nearly 30 minutes. Compounding the situation, a road accident occurred late Tuesday night on the new road in Salia Sahi, where a speeding car struck a motorcycle from behind, sparking protests and a road blockade by local residents over frequent safety hazards along the stretch, even as the injured rider was rushed to Capital Hospital.
Officers from the Maitri Vihar police station eventually intervened to pacify the agitated crowd and clear the road.
Residents have this standstill to combination of flawed festive planning, poor crowd control around clustered pandals, indiscriminate roadside parking, illegal encroachments, rampant wrong-side driving, and a surging volume of private vehicles. While civic authorities have set up temporary immersion ponds at six locations and Bhubaneswar DCP Saravana Vivek M has banned DJ vehicles to ensure peaceful processions, citizens emphasise that traffic mismanagement is increasingly bleeding into routine days.
Civil society groups have urged the Commissionerate Police and civic administrators to enforce stricter parking rules, deploy additional personnel at major intersections, and establish designated green corridors to guarantee unobstructed passage for emergency vehicles and daily commuters.