GUWAHATI: While citizens thronged to several churches and other events which were being held across the city, one of the highlights was the massive traffic jam reported across parts of the city, which started early evening and stayed into the night on December 25, 2022.
Christian Basti on GS Road, commonly known as the Guwahati-Shillong Road, was the hotspot for traffic as citizens were stuck in the traffic for several hours at a stretch. This owing to the two large malls and several other retail shops in the area being thronged by the public by several thousand.
The management of ‘Central Mall’ said that there were around 25,000 people who visited their mall on December 25th for shopping and a large crowd came in to watch movies also. “We were anticipating the numbers and were fully prepared and equipped to handle the rush,” said the officials from the Central Mall.
The ‘City Centre Mall’ however had to shut its gates temporarily, owing to a sudden rush in the late evening. They recorded over 43,000 visitors on Christmas Day.
“The shops were closed at 8:30 PM but the movie theatres, food courts, and restaurants remained open till 11 PM because most people who visited the mall on Christmas had come to enjoy the decorations, and eat out in the food courts,” said Vidit Bhargav, Mall Manager, City Centre Guwahati.
Speaking to G Plus, Hiranya Barman, DCP Traffic Guwahati, stated that despite the availability of double-parking spaces, there is always a huge amount of traffic during Christmas every year, and this year was also no exception. He added that although traffic was slow-moving it continued without disruption."Suddenly there was a drastic increase in the volume of vehicles. We deployed additional forces to check illegal parking but still, the volume of vehicles kept increasing’, said the DCP.