Traffic crawls in heart of Delhi due to Republic Day rehearsal

New Delhi, Jan 23:

crawled in Central Delhi during the morning rush hours as a number of arterial roads were blocked due to the full dress rehearsal of the

.

Barricades were put on all roads leading towards Rajpath and police personnel were posted in large numbers to regulate vehicular movement.

Heavy traffic jams were witnessed on arterial roads on which vehicles were diverted. Commuters had to wait for more than 15 minutes to cross a 500 meters stretch on Sikander road.

Commuters had to wait for more than 15 minutes to cross a 500 meters stretch.

"I was caught unaware in the traffic. I had to wait for around 20 minutes near Mandi House metro station due to traffic jams, said Amrit Kumar, a commuter.

During the rehearsals, the parade started around 9.50 AM from Vijay Chowk and ended at Red Fort. Traffic was not allowed from Vijay Chowk to India Gate on Rajpath from 5 AM to 12:30 PM.

While no cross traffic was allowed on Rajpath from Rafi Marg, Janpath, Man Singh Road, 'C'-Hexagon from 9:30 AM.

Other than that, from 10:00 AM, traffic was stopped on Tilak Marg, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, Subhash Marg.

PTI