PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE | Dehradun
After days of overwhelming crowds of lord Shiva devotees, traffic in Haridwar finally returned to normal for local residents and commuters by Wednesday afternoon.
The Kanwad Yatra, which began on July 11 and concluded on Wednesday, brought nearly 4.5 crore Kanwadiyas to the holy city, turning its roads into packed, slow-moving stretches and making everyday movement extremely challenging.
During the Yatra, local commuters in Haridwar and surrounding areas faced severe disruptions. Roads were blocked or diverted, local and inter-state public transport were unreliable and essential travel to offices, education institutions and hospitals took hours. With thousands of motorcycles and other vehicles parked along roadsides and massive footfall in every direction, even a short trip became a test of patience.
Kamal Rautela, a resident of Bhagat Singh Chowk in Haridwar said, “Welcoming Kanwadiyas is a tradition but numbers are drastically increasing every year. Getting to my shop just two kilometres away took 45 minutes during the Kanwad Mela. It felt like the whole city was frozen.”
A homemaker Aarti Sharma from Shivalik Nagar stated, “We had to leave an hour early to drop my kids to tuitions and sometimes even that was not enough.” Medical emergencies and urgent work-related travel were also impacted due to traffic gridlocks and blocked lanes.
The Haridwar senior superintendent of police Pramendra Dobhal said that now that the Yatra has ended, the city is slowly regaining its pace. Barricades are being removed, roads are being cleared and the pressure on traffic has significantly reduced. Local authorities have intensified post-Yatra cleanup and people are beginning to resume their daily routines with relief. For the people of Haridwar, this marks a welcome return to normalcy after nearly two weeks of religious fervour and logistical chaos. Besides this, the Municipal Corporation of Haridwar (MCH) will also conduct a 10-hour long cleanliness drive overnight from 8 PM on Wednesday to 6 AM on Thursday to avoid disruption to public movement and to allow for uninterrupted cleaning operations to make all major ghats and Kanwad Yatra routes completely clean.
