Ahir regiment protest: Traffic congestion witnessed on Delhi-Jaipur E-way

Gurugram, March 23 (IANS) A protest march called by the Ahir community from the Kherki Daula toll plaza to the Hero Honda Chowk demanding the creation of an 'Ahir Regiment' in the Indian Army disrupted the traffic movement on the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway (NH-48) throughout on Wednesday.

The commuters faced huge traffic congestion on the National Highway as the Gurugram police had diverted the route to avoid traffic bottleneck.

The commuters faced huge inconvenience as the protesters spread from the Kherki Daula toll plaza till the Hero Honda Chowk on the carriageway.

The Gurugram police had put up barricades at several entry points on the National Highway, at Shankar Chowk, Iffco Chowk, Signature Tower, Rajiv Chowk and Hero Honda Chowk on the Expressway.

As a result, traffic going towards Jaipur was particularly slow and long queues of vehicles were witnessed at the Golf Course Road, Kherki Daula toll plaza, Hero Honda Chowk, Southern Peripheral Road (SPR), Rajiv Chowk, Signature Tower Chowk, Iffco Chowk, Shankar Chowk and the Delhi-Gurugram border on the Expressway.

The officials of the traffic police said that the traffic movement on the Expressway was slow due to the protest, even as they took several measures to avoid any congestion.

"We were were updating the people about the traffic situation in Gurugram through our official social media handles," said Subhash Boken, spokesperson for the Gurugram police.

A large number of protesters were present around the Kherki Daula toll plaza. They parked their vehicle on the Expressway and were even seen arguing with the drivers of the public transports to stop them from heading towards Delhi from Jaipur.

Meanwhile, the traffic police had also issued an advisory for the commuters to avoid any inconvenience on the National Highway, but it seemed many commuters were unaware of the protest and faced huge traffic congestion on the National Highway.

The protest was also joined by several party leaders, including Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda, Aam Aadmi Party's Haryana in-charge and Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Gupta, Rewari MLA Chiranjeev Rao, former Haryana cabinet minister Rao Narbir Singh, Former BJP MLA Umesh Aggarwal, and Trinamool Congress leader Ashok Tanwar, among others.