Highway construction work in Haridwar and traffic for Char Dham Yatra added to the chaos

HARIDWAR: With temperatures crossing the 45 degrees Celsius mark in most parts of northern India, hill stations in Uttarakhand are witnessing an influx of tourists, especially from Delhi-NCR. The situation got worse over the weekend as traffic came to a halt in Haridwar, Rishikesh, Mussoorie and Nainital.The unusually high tourist footfall also resulted in chaos after hotels and guest houses in Nainital and Mussoorie ran out of available rooms forcing travellers to take shelter at bus stands and on pavements.Snarls were witnessed on most hill roads and traffic movement came to a grinding halt for over five hours.In Haridwar, even as the police force was deployed to regulate traffic movement and stop the entry of heavy vehicles into the city, 11 bottlenecks on the 4-km-stretch between Singh Dwar and Saptrishi caused a lot of inconvenience to tourists and locals alike.Haridwar circle officer Abhay Singh said, “We are trying to ease the traffic flow by diverting vehicles from Roorkee towards Laksar. Roadways buses have also been stopped and parked at Rishikul bus stand to clear the route. Auto-rickshaws have been barred from entering national highways. We are doing everything possible to clear the route at the earliest and heavy police force has been deployed to ensure that the directions are being followed.”He added that a traffic inspector has also been suspended for negligence of duty.When tourists braved serpentine jams to reach Mussoorie and Nainital to take a break from the scorching heat of the plains, they found that the two hill stations were booked over capacity. Several tourists then took shelter at bus stands and many had to spend the night on the pavements.Mahesh Joshi, a resident of Dwarka in Delhi, said, “I was there in Nainital with my family for the past few days and I got really scared seeing the Saturday tourist rush. We got stuck in a jam for over five hours near Bhowali. Police then diverted the traffic and we were stuck for another three hours. The entire day we were stuck in jams. Now, we will stay the night in Haldwani if we are lucky to get accommodation.”Echoing similar sentiments, Bhakti Soni, a tourist from Bhopal, told TOI, “We had to catch a flight from Delhi on Sunday but got stuck in jam. The tourist rush has spoiled my vacation and now the traffic snarls have dug a hole in my wallet.”Another tourist added that taking advantage of the situation, most hotels have increased their tariff.Balbir, a local resident, said, “We saw young boys from good families sleeping at the bus stand near Picture Palace. I don’t remember witnessing such a sight ever in Mussoorie.”While hotels were packed to capacity on Saturday, Sunday saw a sudden dip in occupancy. Sandeep Sahni, president of Hotels and Restaurant Association of Uttarakhand, said, “The situation was very bad over the weekend and we had to turn down tourists, which we never do. However, the situation was better on Sunday and we hope to do good business.”Nainital senior superintendent of police Prahlad Narayan Meena said that despite the rush, the situation is under control. “On Sunday, at least 1,500 tourist vehicles reached Nainital. Since the city’s parking capacity is full, we have stopped tourists at different points and advised them to stay at Bhimtal or Bhowali. This has eased the situation here.”Meanwhile, to ensure uninterrupted fuel supply on the Char Dham Yatra route, state-owned oil companies have sought help from the Uttarakhand government to issue special passes to fuel tankers to manoeuvre traffic at Haridwar and Rishikesh.The fuel reservoirs of the state oil companies are in Roorkee and Haridwar and it takes over eight hours to reach the outlets in the hill districts. Manoj Jayant, a state-level coordinator, said, “Due to the ongoing Char Dham Yatra, the state is witnessing heavy pilgrim flow. The special passes for oil tankers would ensure gives way to the oil tankers in case of jams.”Read this story in Bengali