Areas with markets were especially congested on the ocassion of Dhanteras.
Traffic moved at a snail's pace in places like Anand Vihar Karol Bagh, Azadpur and many others on Saturday as people thronged markets for shopping on Dhanteras in Delhi.
The Delhi Traffic Control Room tackled calls from commuters from various parts of the city who complained about heavy traffic at several intersections.
"Places like Karol Bagh, Anand Vihar, Dwarka, Kondli Chowk, Najafgarh, Azadpur Mandawali, Lajpat Nagar, Connaught Place, Janpath, Laxmi Nagar have been witnessing heavy traffic jams," a senior traffic official posted at the Delhi Traffic Control Room said.
"We have received several calls from these areas complaining about traffic jams. We have accordingly deputed our personnel on the ground to normalise the traffic for smooth vehicular traffic," he said.
Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) SS Yadav said police were trying to ease the traffic with deployment of its personnel at road stretches leading to the main markets.
"We have made all the arrangements and deployed out staff who are ensuring that congestions especially on the routes towards the market areas are cleared and normalised.
"At areas witnessing heavy congestions, we are ensuring that traffic situation is controlled to ensure smooth flow of vehicular movement," he told PTI.
One of the commuters, a resident of Sangam Vihar who had come to shop at Lajpat Nagar Central Market said, "Due to excess crowd in the market area, it took us almost an hour to drive through the lanes to reach Central Market here. It's usually a crowded market but due to Dhanteras, it is even slower." Keshav Singh, who was commuting from Gurugram to Delhi, said he faced heavy traffic entering the city on the border, not to speak of the jams he negotiated to reach Dwarka and then the centre of the city.
"It took me around half an hour to reach from Punjabi bagh to Netaji Subhash Place which is 10 to 15 minutes ride. The car was only driven in second gear due to bumper to bumper traffic," said Bhaskar, another commuter.