Over 25,000 Weddings Cause Traffic Chaos in Delhi

New Delhi, Dec 7 (IANS) Most arterial roads in the capital faced massive traffic jams as around 25,000 couples tied the knot in traditional Indian weddings on Monday.

Wedding organisers, farmhouse owners, banquet hall owners estimated around 20,000-25,000 weddings took place as the day was listed in Indian lunar almanacs as the most auspicious of the season for the marriages.

A city-based priest, Pt. Ram Gopal told IANS: "The number of weddings could be around 25,000."

"I myself attended three weddings. I along with my relatives have been managing weddings for years. We all were busy in two or more marriages on Monday."

Gopal said the day was very auspicious because of "Ekadashi tithi", the eleventh day since New Moon according to lunar calendar.

"The next two good dates for weddings are December 12 and 13, but none this year could beat the record set by December 7," he said.

A farmhouse owner, Ravindra Gupta, told IANS he had managed three marriages for which he had to outsource additional manpower for catering and other things.

"I have seven banquet halls in Rani Bagh and Mehrauli and all of them were booked three months ago," Gupta told IANS.

A band performer, Mohammed Ibrahim, the owner of one of the oldest bands in Delhi, told IANS: "My men attended nine marriages. As every wedding needs over 20 men, we had to seek over 50 men on double pay."

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Sharad Agarwal said the city started facing traffic jams from 8 p.m. onwards due to a large number of weddings, which involved guests as well as baratis - those joining the groom's procession.

"In view of a large number of weddings happening in Delhi, we had deployed a maximum number of traffic police staff to manage traffic," Agarwal said.

G.T. Karnal Road in north Delhi, Rani Bagh in south Delhi, several roads in Dwarka in west faced massive traffic jams due to the weddings and processions while the traffic movement was very slow in trans-Yamuna area and on the National Highway-8 leading onto suburban Noida and Ghaziabad areas.