Due to holidays for three consecutive days (Good Friday, Second Saturday and Sunday), this time Nainital was packed with tourists on the long weekend. In the afternoon, tourist vehicles were stopped at Narayan Nagar on Haldwani Road, Rusi and Kaladhungi Road, eight kilometers from the city.
When the number of vehicles increased, there was a long queue of vehicles well before entering the hill town. Tourist vehicles had started arriving in Nainital from Friday morning itself. This process continued till afternoon. The parking lot in the city also got packed due to the rush of vehicles.
Long queue of vehicles in one kilometer radius
Due to this, the police started stopping tourist vehicles on Narayan Nagar and Rusi bypass in the afternoon. There was a long queue of vehicles in about one kilometer radius of the Rusi bypass, while vehicles were parked on the roadside from Narayannagar to Khurpatal. According to an estimate, more than two thousand vehicles entered the city in a day.
For the first time in this season after December, a record number of tourists reached the zoo and Cave Gardens. More than one and a half thousand tourists reached Cave Gardens alone on Friday, which is the highest this season. According to Forest Officer Ajay Rawat, 1127 tourists arrived at the zoo, 912 at the waterfall, while around 300 tourists arrived at the Botanical Garden.
In Mussoorie too the situation was no different, by Friday evening, most of the hotels in Mussoorie, Kempty, Buranskhanda and Dhanaulti were packed with tourists.
Traffic jam till Kempty Road
The pressure on the traffic on the Mussoorie Dehradun Highway had started increasing since Friday morning and traffic jam started from JP Bend near Kinkreg till Kinkreg-Library Chowk-Zeropoint Kempty Road in the afternoon.
The traffic jam continued till late evening till Kincraig-Library Chowk and the vehicles were moving at a crawling speed. Tourist places of the city, Company Garden, George Everest, Gunhill, Kempty Fall, Bhatta Fall, Lal Tibba Char Dukan, Dhanaulti were crowded with tourists throughout the day.
