Ghaziabad: Traffic curbs in place for Chhath Puja on Nov 7,8

The Ghaziabad traffic police has announced restrictions for private cars and commercial vehicles on the Grand Trunk Road ahead of Chhath Puja when thousands of devotees will congregate on the banks of river Hindon to perform prayers to the sun god.

The traffic police said the diversions will be in place from the afternoon of November 7 till the end of puja around 8pm and again from around 3am on November 8 to about 9am the same day.

“The restrictions will be in place for private four-wheelers and also for light/medium/heavy commercial vehicles on November 7 and 8. We have identified three major parking lots near the banks of river Hindon and those coming for prayers on two-wheelers etc, will park their vehicles at any of the three designated spots,” said Piyush Kumar Singh, additional deputy commissioner of police, traffic.

The two parking lots are on either side of river Hindon – at the Hindon cremation ground and at Indira Priyadarshini Park – while the third has been identified near the Haj House.

The Chhath Puja festival is observed mainly by people from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and the city has a sizeable population of people from both these regions.

The major puja rituals are performed on the two banks of river Hindon near the GT Road over-bridge.

For the purpose, the officials said, that private vehicles coming towards river Hindon from Siddharth Vihar, New Bus stand or from Meerut crossing, will use the new Link Road and proceed towards National Highway – 9 (NH-9) to move to their designated destinations.

Likewise, the private vehicles coming towards river Hindon from Mohan Nagar will not be allowed and they will use the Nagdwar Road and will proceed further towards the Raj Nagar Extension road and further.

Further, the private vehicles coming from Indirapuram and Vasundhara by way of using the Hindon underpass will not be allowed to proceed towards river Hindon. Instead, they will be diverted towards Vasundhara to move to their designated spots.

“Likewise, commercial vehicles will not be allowed towards river Hindon area and these vehicles will use the link roads to move to their destinations after using NH-9. We are expecting a huge inflow of devotees and may review the diversion/restrictions as required,” the ADCP said.

Officials of the Ghaziabad municipal corporation said they have revamped about 70 Chhath ghats for the festival and the arrangements at the banks of river Hindon include 25 changing rooms, 30 CCTV camera network, a control room, deployment of 20 water tankers and 10 porta toilets besides deployment of 120 cleaning staff.

“We have reviewed the arrangements at the puja ghats and have also deployed zonal in-charges and other officers to oversee the arrangements. Inspections were also taken up for checking the arrangements in place,” said Vikramaditya Malik, municipal commissioner.