Thousands of devotees heading to the Maha Kumbh are stranded on highways due to massive traffic jams stretching hundreds of kilometers on routes leading to Prayagraj. Many suggest that the queue of stranded vehicles was as long as 300 km.

Finding it difficult to manage the traffic, cops in several districts of neighbouring Madhya Pradesh have stopped vehicle movement on a route to Prayagraj. “It’s impossible to go towards Prayagraj today as there is a traffic jam of 200-300 kilometres,” reports quoted the police as saying.

“It is being claimed that vehicles are stuck for 48 hours. It is taking almost 10-12 hours to cover just 50 km,” said a man stuck in traffic.

A jam of up to 25 km was reported on routes leading to Prayagraj from Varanasi, Lucknow and Kanpur. Even inside the city hosting the mega Kumbh festival, a jam of about seven kilometers was witnessed.

Authorities have shut the Prayagraj Sangam railway station to avoid any untoward incident.

“Since the passengers were facing difficulty in getting out of the station due to heavy crowd outside Prayagraj Sangam station, it was decided to close Prayagraj Sangam station in view of the heavy crowd of devotees,” said Senior Divisional Commercial Manager (Northern Railway), Lucknow, Kuldeep Tiwari.

North Central Railway has implemented a single direction traffic system at the Prayagraj Junction station till further orders.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Kuldeep Singh said the jam was due to a very high number of vehicles trying to reach the Mela site. “The number of vehicles is very high. The passengers are trying to come as close as possible to the Maha Kumbh Mela area. Due to this, there is a long jam,” he said.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav criticised the Uttar Pradesh government over the traffic congestion in Prayagraj, claiming that it has also led to a shortage of essential commodities in the city.