Title - Ramdev plays, Delhi pays

NEW DELHI: Monday brought misery to thousands of commuters as traffic came to a grinding halt in central Delhi for several hours. After Baba Ramdev was taken into preventive detention by Delhi Police, his supporters swarmed the Ranjit Singh flyover and Jawaharlal Nehru Marg, triggering massive snarls on major roads.The closure of Ranjit Singh flyover and restricted vehicular movement from Delhi Gate to Ajmeri Gate had a ripple effect on Minto Road, Connaught Place and ITO, causing a gridlock in a 10-km radius. Intermittent spells of rain in the evening and peak hour traffic only added to the chaos, resulting in commuters being stuck in jams that lasted till 7pm.Those travelling to New Delhi Railway Station and hospitals like LNJP and GTB, were hit hard, along with office-goers heading home. "It took me 40 minutes to reach the ITO intersection from Connaught Place. I have been at the ITO red light for almost 10 minutes but the traffic tail is going up to Mandi House, so I don't know when I will be able to cross the signal. I am worried that I will have to step out of the autorickshaw in the rain," said Sushma Mehra, a distraught commuter.Traffic police officials said that they tried their best to undo the damage. "Cops were deployed across the area to ensure vehicles moved at all times. There were stoppages but we operated some intersections manually to prevent total gridlock . Several Ramdev supporters swarmed roads, resulting in disruption of traffic on those routes," said special commissioner of police (traf fic) Sudhir Yadav.

Diversions had to be put in place after the 4,000-member procession walked out of Ramlila Maidan. While traffic from Paharganj and Ajmeri Gate had to be diverted to Connaught Place, movement of vehicles from New Delhi Railway Station to Turkman Gate had to be stopped as Ranjit Singh flyover was closed. As protesters walked on Jawaharlal Nehru Marg and Asaf Ali Road, these stretches also had to be cleared of traffic.

All four sides connecting Ramlila Maidan had to be blocked due to the procession and traffic was diverted towards Connaught Place and Ring Road. Later, as the protesters moved to Delhi Gate and beyond, the impact was felt on Sikandra Road, Tilak Marg, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg and ITO towards the evening. The rain only made matters worse. As Ramdev refused to go to Bawana and headed to Ambedkar Stadium instead, traffic movement was extremely slow on the stretch.

"Traffic was about 30-40 per cent heavier than usual, but the situation was brought under control by around 7pm," said DCP traffic (New Delhi) Pradeep Hota.