300-km traffic snarl strands Maha Kumbh pilgrims on Madhya Pradesh-Uttar Pradesh highways

Thousands of pilgrims travelling to Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj for the Maha Kumbh Mela via Madhya Pradesh on Sunday found themselves stuck in traffic jams “stretching up to 300 kilometers” on inter-state highways, the Hindustan Times reported.

A video shared widely on social media showed an official from the Madhya Pradesh Police urging devotees to turn back from the state’s Katni district, located more than 300 km away from Prayagraj, to avoid getting stuck in traffic.

A pilgrim heading to the Kumbh told the BBC that he had been stuck in traffic for 48 hours.

MP पुलिस प्रयागराज से 300 KM पहले ही खड़े होकर अपील कर रही है कि महाकुंभ जाने वाले लोग रास्ते से वापस लौट जाएं। पूरे हाईवे पर जाम के हालात बहुत बुरे हैं। pic.twitter.com/bCBF6i5jBM

— Sachin Gupta (@SachinGuptaUP) February 9, 2025

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Monday criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttar Pradesh for the traffic congestion.

“Due to traffic jam everywhere in Prayagraj, neither food grains, vegetables, spices are available nor medicines, petrol-diesel,” Yadav said on social media. “Due to this, the condition of crores of hungry, thirsty, tired and exhausted devotees stuck in Prayagraj and Maha Kumbh premises and on the roads leading to Prayagraj is getting worse every hour. This is a very serious situation.”

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