LUCKNOW: The Congress party's roadshow on Monday brought the city to a grinding halt and forced it to stay like that for hours.Heavy traffic had descended on the stretch from Kanpur Road to Hazratganj crossing even before the commencement of the roadshow. As the roadshow began, roads became overcrowded and snarls erupted at each crossing from where it passed.Because of the cascading effect, even areas not on the route of the roadshow were affected. While there was a long jam from Transportnagar metro station to Hazratganj crossing, the alternative routes of Cantonment, Sadar, Lalbagh, Kaiserbagh, Naka, Gomtinagar, University Road, Niralanagar, Indiranagar and Aashiana were also hit.The worst sufferers were passengers on way to board trains or flights and schoolchildren returning home. Even those returning from office in the evening were delayed as the gridlock remained from 1pm to 7pm.Stuck at Awadh crossing for 40 minutes, Mohammed Imran said, "It was the worst day of my life. Every passing second was giving me jitters." Imran was flustered because he was carrying his injured uncle in an ambulance from Para to KGMU.Saurabh Yadav, a class IX student of Bal Vidya Mandir at Charbagh, alleged that the police had not deployed personnel intelligently. The whole of AP Sen Road was chock-a-block because of the pressure of traffic on Station Road.In Cantonment, Binay Kapoor , who had gone to pick his son from Children's Academy around 1.30pm, got stuck in a gridlock on Cantonment overbridge for two hours."The administration needs to come up with a proper plan to maintain traffic flow. Whenever a rally takes place, it becomes nightmare while commuting," he said.Shubham Das, who missed his train for Howrah, said, "I was coming from Badshahnagar crossing via Ashok Marg when on Hazratganj, I got stuck in a snarl and was told by a commuter to take the route of Cantonment via Mall Avenue flyover. But, that was also blocked," he added.A similar experience was shared by Anjali Sahu who nearly missed her flight to Bhopal."There was complete chaos at Transportnagar Metro station. No cop was seen manning it. It took 45 minutes for me to reach the airport, barely 1km from there," she added.In the evening, those returning from office had a harrowing experience. Piyush Asthana said, "It took me more than one hour to reach Hussainganj crossing from my office in Bapu Bhawan. The distance is barely a kilometre.There were pile-ups in Lalbagh and Kaiserbagh which extended to residential colonies.ASP (traffic) RS Nim said, "We had deployed traffic police personnel as well as constables on all 37 crossings on the route. "Overcrowding and influx of high number of vehicles led to blockages but those were regulated soon," he added.

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