GURUGRAM: There was no respite on the roads on Wednesday morning, a state holiday for Basant Panchami. For over two hours, a stretch of Gurgaon-Faridabad road , around 5km long, suffered from slow-moving traffic and frequent jams — the result of a breakdown of a truck during morning rush hour. The snarls left commuters in the lurch as many professionals were delayed for work.The snarls started around 8.40am on the Faridabad to Gurgaon carriageway, near Bandhwari village, i.e., just after one enters the district from Faridabad. An 8-wheeler truck broke down in the middle of the road, and halted diagonally across the road, encroaching upon a lane and a half of the three lanes, leading to a bottleneck . All of a sudden, only one lane was functional for the rest of the traffic. "Two-wheeler riders were lucky as they could pass between vehicles. I spent over 45 minutes to cross the spot where the truck was stranded. Ideally, it should now have taken more than 15 minutes," said Roma Dixit, a financial expert who drove to office.As only a third of the vehicles could cross at a time, long tailbacks soon formed on the highway, which reached back to the district border, 3km from the breakdown spot. Within half an hour, the pile-up spilled over for another 2km into the Faridabad side."Such snarls were unexpected today. I was under the impression that it's a state holiday and thought there will be fewer vehicles on the road. On the contrary, I was stuck on the road for an hour and a half," said Anand Guha, a marketing manager.Traffic cops had a tough time reaching the breakdown spot with a crane, as it being morning rush hour, there was heavy traffic on the Faridabad-bound road as well. Finally, the truck was moved from the road at around 9.30am, but by then, the road was already clogged. The snarls eventually cleared after 10.30am, though traffic continued to move slowly till around 11.15am. During this period, traffic police departments of both Gurgaon and Faridabad worked in tandem to keep at least one lane moving, arresting gridlocks that were forming as commuters tried to jump lanes."Speed was affected and traffic movement was very slow due to heavy rush hour pressure, but traffic cops did their best to keep the vehicles moving. It improved after the truck which had broken down was removed from the road," said ACP Manish Sehgal.

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