BANGALORE: The increasing fear of tremors made many vacate their buildings. A large number of people stayed on roads affecting the vehicular traffic for several hours in many areas.
The Bangalore Traffic Police deputed extra personnel in the Central Business District (CBD) to manage the congested traffic. The worst affected were Koramangala Inner Ring Road, Bannerghata Road, Padmanabhanagar, Mysore Road and Vijayanagar, where the traffic came to a standstill for over one hour.
BMTC buses carried hoards of people in areas like Benson Town, Shivaji Nagar, Majestic and KR Market. Traffic jams were mainly witnessed in front of major bus stops. Employees were seen leaving offices in private and public vehicles in the evening. Ambulances were reportedly stuck in traffic jams at Domlur junction, Kasturba Road, Kalasipalyam Market and Koramangala Inner Ring Road. “We are trying to clear traffic and send people back into their houses but there’s so much hype created that people do not want to maintain peace,” said a Circle Inspector stationed near Palace Grounds. At Banashankari, the ongoing Metro work caused a lot of traffic chaos as people could not get out of the traffic jams which started from Jayanagar.
Though the traffic police controlled the situation, the vehicles were moving at a snail’s pace.