Traffic chock-a-block in Capital over Congress protests

The police detained 235 Congress workers and leaders for twin protests against Agnipath and Rahul Gandhi’s ED summons

Major arterial stretches entering the city and border points remained chock-a-block after the Delhi Police put up several barricades in view of the Bharat Bandh protests by Congress over the Centre’s Agnipath scheme on Monday.

Some of the border points, including entry points like Noida via DND, Delhi-Gurugram Expressway, Ghazipur and Chilla Border saw long queues of vehicles.

Several areas in Lutyens’ Delhi and areas like Connaught Place, Barapullah corridor, Jantar Mantar, Vikas Marg, Ring Road and ITO saw heavy commuter traffic due to the protests. Commuters from Gurugram and Noida too faced traffic snarls while entering the city.

Roads leading to Lutyens’ Delhi were heavily barricaded by the police in view of the security situation due to the Agnipath protests, forcing commuters to take alternate routes.

The Delhi police also deployed its staff at various border checkpoints and carried out intensive checking of vehicles, causing a further pile-up of vehicles. Several videos showing traffic congestion at Delhi's border points went viral on social media on Monday.

Meanwhile, causing further inconvenience to commuters travelling by train, Indian Youth Congress (IYC) workers on Monday stopped a train at Shivaji Bridge Railway Station near Connaught Place to protest against the Agnipath scheme and the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) questioning of Rahul Gandhi regarding the National Herald money laundering case.

The track was later cleared by the police and security personnel and train movement resumed after around half-an-hour.