Commuters suffers as traffic on NH 44 diverted for second day amid farmers’ blockade

Commuters were at the receiving end again as farmers’ blockade at Pipli on the Delhi-Chandigarh (NH 44) highway for the second day on Tuesday, with thousands of motorists remaining stuck in a traffic gridlock caused by the diversions on the link roads. The blockade was lifted late in the evening, with farmers protesting saying that the state government has agreed to their demands

Earlier in the day, traffic had been shifted on the link roads to cut traffic on the country’s one of the busiest highways. Most arterial roads in the Kurukshetra and Karnal districts remained blocked as a result.

Speaking of the same, Karnal superintendent of police (SP) Shashan Kumar Sawan said police officials had been deputed to monitor traffic. “Though there were traffic issues at the diversion points, the efforts were being made to ensure people reach their destinations,” he added.

As per the reports, around 50,000 vehicles use the highway, which connects Delhi with the North Indian states every day. Due to the blockade, commuters were forced to travel 30-50 km extra, only to find themselves stuck in traffic for hours.

Harshita, who was travelling to Shimla, like most commuters was in for a tough time as she had to take a diversion from Ambala for the NH-152.

“There are specific diversion boards installed by the authorities to guide the commuters, but we had to face traffic jams and cover extra distance. It took me around nine hours to cover a distance of 400 km as I had to cover 50 km extra,” she said.

A Chandigarh resident, echoed the frustration, saying he had to travel on the wrong side of the service lane for 80 km amid the chaos.

As per an alternate route, the traffic coming from Chandigarh had been diverted at Sadhopur to NH-152 (Chandigarh-Hisar) and travel via Ismailabad, Karnal and beyond via NH-44.

Similarly, on another route — Ambala Cantt bus stand via Saha, Radaur, Ladwa and Karnal — is taken, the travel time increases by 30 minutes.

While for the traffic from Delhi, there are three alternative routes, where the commuters can turn to Indri Road from Karnal on NH-44 and travel via Ladwa, Babain, Shahbad and take NH-44 for their destination or turn right from Ladwa Chowk to travel via Radaur and take NH-344 (Saharanpur-Panchkula) or travel till Nilokheri in Karnal and take Dhand road to reach Kaul and commute via NH-152D for Ambala and beyond.

Besides congestion at several points, the diversion also forced the daily wagers, who commute on public transport to walk for kilometres amid the scorching heat.

“We have to spend nearly two hours to cover only 10 km on the Ladwa-Shahbad road as there were long traffic jams because of diversion of traffic”, Nirmal Singh, a resident of Radaur who had to come to Kurukshetra to see an ailing relative, said.

Similarly, the truckers were also facing a tough time as the heavy vehicles were not allowed to travel on the links roads as well. “Due to blockade on the NH 44 we are not able to take vegetables to Delhi”, Ladwa-based vegetable trader Ajay Kumar said.

(With inputs from Bhavey Nagpal in Ambala)