Delhiites face road closures amid CWG cyclothon
Cyclothon, or the cycling competition, a major part of the Commonwealth Games posed severe inconvenience to the Delhi dwellers, as CP along with other major roads across the city remained blocked for traffic throughout Sunday. As the heart of the city remained
cordoned off, people travelling from east to west or south to north part of the city faced tough time getting across. Despite of heavy traffic, traffic jams at Delhi are rarely observed, and the city dwellers were seen losing their temper at this rare situation.
People going to Delhi railway station, amid closed roads, were forced to opt for long detours and that too with very little information available regarding the roads which were still open. Commenting upon the situation observed through the day, Puneet Gaur,
a resident of Preet Vihar said that making it to the railway station was no less than a headache as all of the roads leading to it were virtually blocked. He told the media correspondent that in order to reach to the station he had to take Asif Ali road, which
made him cover an extra 15km to catch the train. He further said that he could only make it to the station, as he left home around one and half hour before the departure of the train.
Puneet Gaur was fortunate enough to make it to his destination anyway. There were many others who found it impossible to cross the jammed roads, as they did not have any information regarding which other way to opt for. Sharing her sufferings, Kamini Gupta,
a resident of East Patel Nagar said that she came to CP outer circle from Baba Kharak Singh Marg and further had to go to ITO for some personal work, however, the roads were completely blocked. She further said that roads like Ashoka Road, and the routes behind
Parliament house were also closed and no one even had a clue about where to go for finding an open road.
The cyclothon, as planned, started from Sansad Marg and moved through Red Cross Road, Prasad Marg, Janpath, Rajpath, CP outer circle, Minto Road to Deen Dayal Upadhay Marg. With the aim to facilitate the event, all the roads were blocked at south fountain,
Janpath, Rajpath, Ashok Road, Raisina Road, Bhay Bhuti Marg, and Imtiaz Khan Marg road from dawn until 7 in the evening.
The Delhi dwellers said that since almost all of the major roads across the city were closed, they observed areas like CP completely empty, which otherwise, are usually jam packed with the crowd. People who happened to be present at the event said that they
observed a totally new face of Delhi, as markets were closed and not a single soul was there on the roads. In order to stop the entry of the vehicles into the area, the Delhi police barricades along with the Delhi Transport Corporation buses were parked at
the entrance of the roads.
Despite of the fact that the cyclothon covered almost whole of the city, the spectators did not show up at all to watch the event. A police official, who had been on duty as the cyclothon proceeded, told the media personnel that he only observed some spectators
at A, B and C blocks, however, they were quite thin in number. Sharing the possible reasons for very little crowd, watching the event another senior police official said that it was a hot day at Delhi, moreover, the organizing committee did not make any efforts
to inform people as to where could they stand and watch the event.
Sharing her views, a commuter, Ajeet Kor lamented that though they had been into a mess throughout the day, it was not something unexpected from the Delhi authorities as they had always kept in sight their own convenience rather than the feasibility of the
citizens. She further said that had the Delhiites been informed about the arrangements earlier, they could have avoided having a day full of sufferings.
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