Delhi’s festive season traffic turns nightmarish as jams choke NCR roads, social media users react

Delhi witnessed massive traffic snarls on Wednesday and Thursday

Delhi’s traffic woes have hit a new high this festive season, with major stretches across the national capital and its adjoining areas witnessing congestion at massive levels. Google Maps showed massive traffic snarls that have left commuters stuck for hours.

The Diwali shopping rush and festive travel have brought key routes in the national capital region (NCR), including the Ring Road, Outer Ring Road, Mathura Road, Aurobindo Marg, Barapullah Elevated Road and the Delhi Noida Direct (DND) Flyway, to a near standstill. Meanwhile, the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, connecting Ghaziabad, also presented a similar picture, with vehicles crawling for miles.

The situation remained grim on Thursday, replicating Wednesday’s scenes of bumper-to-bumper traffic across the NCR, extending to Noida, Gurugram, Faridabad as well as Ghaziabad.

Social media outcry

Social media platform X (formerly Twitter) was flooded with complaints and memes capturing the ordeal of stranded commuters across the city.

“I’ve never seen traffic like this in Delhi! Been stuck in the same spot for over 2 hours nothing’s moving. Called 112 three-four times, but the call kept dropping and no one called back. What a mess! With the festival season ahead, this is pathetic planning by the authorities,” one user wrote on X.

Another posted a meme captioned, “People in traffic jam during festivals in Delhi,” summing up the collective exasperation.

“How can there be traffic jams in all parts of Delhi during Diwali. This seems to be a conspiracy to trouble residents of Delhi/NCR. What are the police and traffic police doing about it? Utterly nonsense situation,” another user questioned.

Police on high alert

Amid the outrage, the Delhi Police has stepped up its efforts to control the situation. Following a surge of complaints, the department cancelled all leaves for traffic personnel and increased ground deployment to manage the rush.

“Personnel on motorcycles have been deployed and leaves have been cancelled. We are fully prepared to manage the rush and ensure smoother movement in the coming days,” PTI quoted Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Ajay Chaudhary as saying.

Officials said that additional monitoring units and motorcycle patrols have been deployed at major intersections and choke points across the city to help ease congestion ahead of the weekend and Diwali festivities.