Tough time for commuters as farmers block road, rail traffic

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 20

Nearly eight-km stretch from Jalandhar bus stand to Dhanowali, the site on the Jalandhar-Phagwara stretch of NH-1, which was blocked by the agitating farmers today, had hundreds of vehicles stranded on either side of the road till this evening.

People commuting by cars and buses were caught up in the huge traffic jam stretching up to kilometers and were unable to move ahead or backward for hours. Several trucks, oil tankers and containers too were lined up waiting for the traffic to get cleared or the police to guide them to a suitable diversion but to no avail.

The entire traffic between Jalandhar, Amritsar and Pathankot on one side and Phagwara, Nawanshahr, Ludhiana and Chandigarh on the other side had got paralysed with the farmers’ protest going for an indefinite period.

Diversions of no use

As people started from their places unaware of the likely traffic snarl and the magnitude of the impact it could have, they were made to take very long detours for the whole day. Those coming from Pathankot to Amritsar were told to use Pathankot Chowk, Lamma Pind Chowk and Chugitti Chowk. Those going towards Hoshiarpur were told to follow Dhilwan Road, Ladowali Chowk, PAP Chowk and Rama Mandi. For Phagwara to Jandiala, commuters were asked to use McDonald’s T-Point on GT Road. For Moga-Shahkot-Nakodar, they were asked to follow the usual passage from Partappura, Wadala Chowk and Nakodar Chowk. Since cops were not deployed on alternate routes to guide commuters, they remained confused and used GPS system for tracking alternate route, which too did not come handy to many. Rama Mandi Chowk and PAP Chowk just ahead of the dharna site got much congested for the whole day today that even the bikers found it extremely difficult to find the way ahead.

Travelling due to Rakhi

Many commuters said they were travelling today to celebrate Rakhi in a big way as the weekend had started. Manish Arora, a resident of Chandigarh, said unaware of the rail blockade, he boarded the train from Chandigarh this afternoon to spend two days with his sister in Amritsar but only to get stuck 2km ahead of Ludhiana. “I kept waiting for the train to chug forward but that did not happen for almost 30 minutes. Sensing trouble, I called up some friends in Ludhiana to ask what had happened. Finally, they came to the site where I was stuck. I took a late evening bus to go back to Chandigarh from where I had started as they told me of Jalandhar dharna and its wider impact,” he shared.

Weekend spoiled for many

Davinder Pal, who had started from Chandigarh today to pick his daughter studying in Jalandhar for the weekend, said: “It took me six hours to just reach Jalandhar, which was the ideal time for me to return back home. It became dark and we were finding our way through the alleys of the city to reach our daughter near Suranussi. It was around 9 pm that we finally reached our destination. Badly exhausted and in no mood to get into that mess all over again in the thick of night, we too decided to stay put in Jalandhar with her and re-start our journey tomorrow again.”

Train passengers worst hit

More than 600 passengers got stuck up in Sri Vaishno Devi Katra Vande Bharat Express near Jalandhar. Ajay Sharma, who works as an operation head with a private company at Jammu, said: “I had started from Jammu paying a ticket of Rs 1,800 till Ambala for the executive class travel. At 6:45 pm, our train got halted at Jalandhar and doors of our train were shut for safety purpose. We kept on requesting the authorities to allow us to move out so that we could at least take a taxi for our journey ahead, but they refused. I finally called up on 100 and asked police for help. I was told to reach the engine side and get out of the door from there. Only five more passengers were allowed to alight while the remaining were still caught up till 9:45 pm, which was nearly three hours. We got a taxi but I term the incident as sheer mismanagement of the authorities and harassment of the passengers when they were supposed to know of the problem well in advance. I will definitely seek for a refund from the IRCTC.”