Karunanidhi gets taste of traffic snarl

Tiruchirapalli, Mar 5 (UNI) It took DMK President M Karunanidhi nearly three hours to cover a distance of seven km between his hotel and the venue of his party's conference because of a massive traffic jam today.

He left his hotel to the conference venue near the airport, about seven km away, at 1500 hrs but within half-an-hour of leaving the hotel the DMK Chief got stuck in the jam which prevented him from moving even an inch for the next three hours.

In the absence of police personnel, party volunteers tried to regulate the traffic but their attempts failed because the roads leading to the venue were blocked by hundreds of haphazardly parked vehicles.

Mr Karunanidhi, who heads the Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA), finally managed to reach the venue at 1745 hrs.

While ally and PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss, who too was caught in a taffic jam, managed to get in, Union Ministers Mani Shankar Aiyar and G K Vasan had to walk down the airport to receive Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who arrived here to address the Conference.

All the roads leading to the Conference venue in this town were choked with vehicles and traffic came to a standstill.

Hundreds and thousands of cadres, who thronged the town from various parts of the state, had to abandon their vehicles enroute and walk upto the conference venue.

UNI WS-GV VV PM RK1905