New Delhi: Massive traffic jams were reported from parts of Delhi, Mumbai and Noida on Wednesday morning, with thousands of buses, cars and two-wheelers, returning to the roads days after the government eased coronavirus lockdown guidelines this week.
Videos of bumper-to-bumper traffic from Mumbai’s Andheri, Delhi’s ITO and Yamuna Bridge neighbourhoods and the Delhi-Gurgaon, Delhi-Noida borders emerged, with serpentine queues of slow-crawling vehicles a reminder of pre-lockdown life in metro cities.
Similar scenes were witnessed at the Delhi-Noida border on Monday, when there was confusion over whether vehicular traffic was allowed to cross into Uttar Pradesh.
Movement restrictions were eased by the Home Ministry, starting Monday, for public and private vehicular traffic, and included inter-state travel with the mutual consent of states/union territories involved, except for those places in containment areas.
However, the district administration in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida stopped non-essential traffic from entering, with the UP government leaving the final decision to district officials.
Vehicles related to essential services and goods remain exempted, with the centre directing states to ensure they pass unimpeded.
Lockdown 4, which the government said earlier would seek to project “normalcy on the ground”, has given states and union territories autonomy in colour-coding coronavirus zones and, thereby, deciding what is and what is not permitted in each.
Under the centre’s broad guidelines taxis (including app-based aggregators like Ola and Uber) and private cars can run with a maximum of two passengers and one driver, while two-wheelers can be used without a pillion rider.
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