Bengaluru: 1,000 buses, 50,000 pvt vehicles cause midnight gridlock | Bengaluru News

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BENGALURU: People wanting to celebrate Deepavali with their near and dear ones in faraway places may never forget their snail-paced journey while leaving the city Friday night. An extra fleet of over 1,000 buses (private and government) and 50,000 additional four-wheelers, with around 2.5 lakh commuters in them, hit city roads between 8pm and 2am, going in different directions and resulting in massive traffic jams.
The outflow again began Saturday around 8am but reduced by afternoon.
Joint commissioner of police (traffic) MN Anucheth told STOI that huge congestion was seen Friday night at places where there were bus terminals like Satellite bus stand in Byatarayanapura on Mysuru Road, different points of Hosur Road where innumerable pick-up points of bus passengers are there, or junctions such as Goraguntepalya on Tumakuru Road. “The outflow started in the evening, after office hours, and swelled as hours passed. At places where there were bus stands or pick-up points, we had placed barricades to stop passengers from coming on the roads and disturbing traffic,” he said.

DCP (traffic, north) Sachin Ghorpade said the traffic situation at Goragunteplaya returned to normalcy only after 2am on Saturday. “Though the festive rush resumed Saturday morning, the number of vehicles was comparatively less,” he said.
Traffic police said vehicles were moving slowly between Shivananda Circle and Goraguntepalya. From Shivananda Circle, the road connects to Malleswaram and to Yeshwantpur before reaching Goraguntepalya. The other road that witnessed congestion even after midnight was Mysuru Road. Things got back to normal after 1am.

Asked about their plans to handle traffic when the festive period ends Tuesday and people return, Anucheth said, “While returning, people will come on different days and at different times. They have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to come back, and at such times, the inflow will not be so heavy. Same thing happened during Dasara festival,” he said. “On Tuesday and Wednesday, we’ll deploy more police personnel across the city…”