Amid evening rain, vehicles crawl on Ahmednagar Road

PUNE: Traffic on Ahmednagar Road came to a standstill on Tuesday evening, leaving commuters stranded amid showers for hours.
Travelling even a kilometre took commuters about an hour. Sangeeta Agarwal, a regular commuter on the stretch, said she took one-and-a-half hours to reach Kalyaninagar from Koregaon Park - a distance of about a kilometre.
Geeta Jawani, another commuter, lost an hour travelling a distance of 2km from IBM on Don Bosco Road to Vimannagar.Traffic police attributed the congestion on evening showers.
From the Golf Course junction to Phoenix Mall, commuters experienced bumper-to-bumper traffic on Tuesday evening. The lanes of Vimannagar, Kalyaninagar and Maharashtra Housing Board Colony were also choked - a rippling effect of the congestion on Ahmednagar Road.
Prerna Shah, a commuter, said, "There was a huge jam from the Golf Course junction to Shastrinagar Chowk. I took a detour via Gunjan Chowk. Then I got stuck on Ahmednagar Road for over an hour."
Vimannagar resident Rubina Jiwan said, "My mother was stuck in traffic for one-and-a-half hours between Dhole Patil Road and Dorabjee Chowk in Vimannagar. Many people behave like illiterates in such traffic situations. Nobody wants to wait or take initiative to ease the congestion. Frustrated with the traffic situation, my mother finally got down from the auto near Dorabjee and walk home."
Kharadi resident Amruta Agarwal took 45 minutes to travel from her house at Nyati Empire to a nearby supermarket, about 1km away. "It was a pathetic situation," she said.
A senior traffic official told TOI, "The traffic jam on Ahmednagar Road started at 7pm because of rain. Showers slowed down the overall speed of vehicles. Second, there was increased number of cars on the road because of rain. In addition to that a car breakdown also added to the jam."
The official said, "Traffic policemen are there from the beginning and some extra men have also been deployed. The situation is under control and the jam is getting clear now."