Tourists pour into Dharamshala, traffic movement hit: Police

Normal traffic movement and bus services were hit today as the city's major thoroughfares and highways remained clogged with tourist vehicles pouring into the Himachal Pradesh hill resort since Friday.
The worst affected was traffic on the Mubarikpur- Dharamshala, Dharamshala-Palampur and Dharamshala-Mcleodganj roads, police said.
"More than 6,000 vehicles arrived this weekend in the town, an almost six fold increase," Superintendent of Police (SP) S Gandhi said, adding that people were left stranded for hours.
The tourist influx is mostly from states such as Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir, the SP said.
Traffic snarls and bottlenecks are a common sight at McLeodganj, Bhagsunag and Dharamkot, local residents said.

They said these jams are delaying not only city buses but also out-station services as roads were the only lifeline of the hill-station in the absence of railway.

The worst hit are buses plying to Delhi from here. Most were six to 10 hours late during the weekend, an official of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation(HRTC) said.
The official said HRTC is also planning to divert long distance and inter-state buses throughalternate roads during the heavy tourist season.
"The highway near Gopalpur Zoo is the worst hit. To streamline vehicular movement constables have been deployed. Most visitors to the zoo park their vehicles on the highway in the absence of proper parking facilities, causing regular traffic jams in the area," Deputy SP (Palampur) Vikas Dhiman said.

Though the administration has planned on making roads one-way, constructing by-passes and restricting entry of heavy vehicles, it is yet to arrange for parking facilities, residents complained.
The Dharamshala-Palampur roadthat links the city to Mandi and Manali was also closed for six hours due to flooding of the tourist vehicles.