Monday mayhem on Delhi roads as cab drivers protest

New Delhi, May 2 It was a Monday mayhem for commuters on the national capital's roads, with a section of taxi drivers protesting a Supreme Court decision to ban cabs operating on diesel and petrol.

The protesting drivers took to the roads at many places in the capital, causing hardships for school-going children and office-goers. 

The condition was worse on the Delhi-Gurgaon and Delhi-Noida borders and near west Delhi's Rajokri area.

"The taxi drivers blocked both the carraigeways on Rajokri flyover near the old Delhi toll booth on Gurgaon-Dhaula Kuan road," a traffic police official told IANS. 

The protests and blockages led to major traffic snarls across the national capital, with vehicles lined up behind one another for up to 1 km, an official said.

"It takes me 20 minutes to reach work, but I am stuck here for the past 30 minutes. Nothing is moving," Preeti Gupta, a PR professional working in Noida Sector 16 told IANS. 

Vaibhav Mishra, who works in a Gurgaon tech firm, said it took him two hours to reach his office from the neighbouring Sultanpur area. "It was harrowing. It turned worse as the AC in my car was not working," he said. 

Vehicles were also piled up on the Delhi Noida Direct (DND) flyway but were soon cleared with the help of policemen deployed there, an official said. 

The apex court on Saturday had refused to give more time to taxi operators to switch to the cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) and banned the diesel and petrol-based taxis in Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) from May 1.

The deadline for the change was extended twice earlier.

Various researches and studies put Delhi among the most polluted city in the world.