Bengaluru: Congress party’s Jana Ashirvad Rally at Palace Grounds, which was attended by party president Rahul Gandhi, threw traffic out of gear in the Central Business District on Sunday afternoon.
Vehicles were piled up at Mekhri Circle, Palace Road, Jayamahal Road, JC Nagar main road, CIL Road, Queen's Road, Cantonment Junction, Ballari Road, Cunningham Road, CBI Junction, Race Course Road, Sanjay Nagar, Hebbal and Miller's Road. The traffic movement literally came to a standstill as hundreds of buses that brought thousands of supporters to the venue were moving on Jayamahal Road Road. Traffic congestion started at 3 pm when vehicles started arriving at the venue to drop the participants and later moved towards the parking lot on Jayamahal Road in front of JC Nagar police station.
A senior traffic police officer said that managing vehicular movement during political events is hard. “With narrow roads and less number of alternative roads, we find it difficult to clear the traffic,” he said. Arun, a motorist stuck in the traffic, said he had an appointment with a doctor at a private hospital, but could not make it. “I was supposed to reach the hospital at 6 pm. I have been stuck in the traffic for over an hour and there is no way I can reach the hospital in time. I postponed the appointment to Monday, but I cannot even go back home as I see vehicle piled up for kilometres," he said. Traffic congestion continued till 10 pm.
An ambulance, which was on its way to pick up a patient, was stuck on Miller’s Road. The patient, however, rushed to the nearby hospital in an autorickshaw. The ambulance driver, Shashi, said that the patient’s family, who stay on Hutchins Road, kept calling them, but they could not to past Vasanthnagar.
