Traffic snarls, surge in cab prices compound problems in Chandigarh tricity during rain

The week began on a wet note for residents in the Chandigarh tricity as they faced inconvenience and traffic snarls to reach their offices. The traffic helpline remained unreachable for most of the day and with the Independence Day around the corner, Chandigarh traffic police’s Twitter handle didn’t see their usual surge of activity during the rain due to which many commuters were stuck in the rain and left at their wits’ end.

Ritu Thakur, an advertising professional who works in Sector 34, was on her way to the office from Sector 2, Panchkula. “Usually my cab fare runs around ₹200 and I take an hour to reach the office, but on Monday it took me 2.5 hours and I had to pay ₹770 for the usual ride,” said Ritu.

“An accident at the Housing Board Chowk, a huge traffic jam forced the driver to take a detour. The traffic remained stationary in Zirakpur. Most people in my office reached late,” she said.

She also added that although traffic policemen were deployed at the light points, people weren’t following their instructions as they were in a rush.

Rushali Chandel said she had to wait for 45 minutes just for the cab fare to go down. “Drivers go offline during rains, due to this cabs aren’t available and we have to wait and then prices surge as well.”

She eventually paid ₹215 for a cab that would have cost her ₹100 on a routine day.

Independence-Day drills kept cops away

Speaking about the traffic situation on Monday, Shashank Anand, SSP traffic, said, “A large part of the traffic police was busy with the Independence Day drills and we had to deploy additional constables from the traffic lines to man the traffic. A safe corridor also had to be created for an organ transplant, as a heart had to be rushed from PGIMER to the Airport, from where it was airlifted. This was done when the traffic was at its worst between 9.30am and 10am, yet we successfully did it in 14 minutes.”