Snapped Chandigarh-Panchkula links spell chaos on Madhya Marg, NH

Amit Sharma

Chandigarh, July 12

For the second day in a row, there was severe traffic chaos on the Madhya Marg stretch between the Housing Board and transport area light points.

With the Shastri Nagar bridge near Bapu Dham Colony, Kishangarh bridge, the Sukhna Choe bridge near the CTU workshop in Industrial Area, Phase I, and Vikas Nagar railway underpass remaining closed to traffic due to damage caused by the relentless rain, there are not many alternative routes to reach Panchkula from Chandigarh and vice versa. Commuters faced a challenging time while driving on this 4-km stretch of the Madhya Marg.

Ruchi, a resident of Chandigarh, who was heading to Panchkula for some work, decided to cancel her plans after being stuck in the traffic for nearly 30 minutes. The long queues of vehicles at the Housing Board lights discouraged her from entering Panchkula. She turned towards Mani Majra, took the IT Park road to return to Chandigarh.

It took Ashish, a resident of Panchkula, over 45 minutes to cover the stretch that usually takes 5 or 7 minutes. He said they couldn’t even turn left towards the Railway Station from the light point because the road near the cremation ground in Industrial Area, Phase-I, was also closed due to the damaged bridge.

The traffic police seemed helpless amid serpentine queues of vehicles. Some ambulances had remained stuck in the traffic for a long time. On the road from Hallo Majra to Panchkula, the Vikas Nagar railway underbridge has been closed due to waterlogging. The police said water was being drained out using suction pumps. The blocked underbridge spilled traffic on to the Zirakpur-Chandigarh stretch of the national highway. People from Panchkula took a detour to reach Chandigarh and vice versa.

The Chandigarh police and their Panchkula counterpart used the social media to inform people about the massive traffic jam as well as the alternative route through Zirakpur. However, even Zirakpur- Chandigarh route proved a frustrating experience for commuters. The route had witnessed long snarl-ups the entire day.

Ishita, a resident of Zirakpur, said it took her almost an hour to reach the Tribune Chowk in the morning. Another Zirakpur resident, Sunil Kumar, said it took him 10 to 15 minutes between the K Area light point and the Paras Downtown T-point in the evening.

To avoid jams, many individuals took leave from offices.

Vikram, a resident of Mani Majra, said, “I didn’t want to go through this traumatic experience, so I took a two-day leave from work.”

Cops regulate traffic manually

To regulate traffic, police personnel were deployed at all junctions on the Madhya Marg. Personnel were also deployed in the evening shift from 6 pm to 11 pm on this stretch to mitigate the problem and manually regulate the traffic.

Traffic advisory

• Panchkula residents are advised to travel to Chandigarh via Zirakpur
• Avoid travel during peak morning and evening hours