Protests over summons to Kejriwal clog traffic arteries in central and south Delhi

Traffic in entire central Delhi was forced to crawl as the Aam Aadmi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party held protests against each other near their respective headquarters - both situated 800 metres away on Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) Margon Friday, choking movement of motorists on the crucial ITO intersection and major road arteries which meets at the junction.

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The two simultaneous protests forced the police to shut traffic on DDU Marg, catching motorists in the morning rush hour by surprise as there was no prior traffic advisory or warning issued by the Delhi Traffic Police. The traffic police issued just one advisory on its X handle that too at 1.52pm, but by that time thousands of commuters were already stuck in snarls on a number of roads around ITO --- one of the busiest traffic intersections in the city.

As the city police barricaded some more streets such as Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg and those connecting the DDU Marg from Delhi Gate side to stop the agitators from reaching the two protest sites-BJP and AAP headquarters and park their vehicles, the traffic congestion worsened.

The chock-a-block situation spilled into many adjacent arterial routes, including Vikas Marg, Ring Road, Delhi-Meerut Expressway, IP Marg, Minto Road and Jawahar Lal Nehru Marg.

The spillover snarls also hit traffic on India Gate's C-Hexagon, Mathura Road, Tilak Marg, Pragati Maidan tunnel-Purana Quila Road and Bhagwan Das Road, as the police diverted traffic from DDU Marg.

Commuters and experts blamed the traffic police for shoddy management and as the affected stretch involved some of the city's critical traffic arteries.