Ahmedabad motorists could face severe congestion on SG Highway, the Sardar Patel Ring Road, Sindhubhavan Road and the Vaishnodevi Circle approach during the nine nights of Navratri, as traffic volumes are expected to rise sharply while several road and infrastructure works remain incomplete, Gujarat Samachar reported.
The report said night-time vehicle movement on the western Ahmedabad corridors could increase by 35% to 40% during the festival. Daily traffic on SG Highway and the Ring Road, normally estimated at 1.20 lakh to 1.30 lakh vehicles, is expected to rise to between 1.75 lakh and 1.85 lakh vehicles during the peak night hours of Navratri.
The most difficult period is expected to be between 8 pm and 2 am, when vehicles heading to commercial garba venues and clubs will converge with private cabs and regular traffic. The pressure will be highest around narrow stretches, diversions and service roads near event locations, according to the report.
Several of the affected corridors are already operating with restrictions because of ongoing flyover, drainage-line and pre-festival resurfacing works. On SG Highway, civil works and metro or bridge projects have blocked portions of service roads, while barricading has narrowed sections of the main carriageway. The resulting diversions and reduced road capacity could create bottlenecks as large numbers of festival-goers arrive at the same time.
The report also identified Sindhubhavan Road and the Bopal-Ambli approach road as vulnerable points. In these areas, incomplete road-repair patches and roadside parking outside garba venues could reduce a three-lane road to a single usable lane. The combination of construction activity, event-related parking and concentrated night-time movement is expected to slow traffic around venue approaches.
Ahmedabad Police has announced a large security deployment for the festival. According to the police commissioner’s statement cited in the report, 14,000 police personnel, 500 senior officers and 139 police control room vans will be deployed across the city. An additional 500 personnel have been assigned to traffic management.
Women’s safety teams will also be deployed. The police plan includes 49 teams operating in plain clothes to prevent harassment and respond to complaints around festival venues and access roads. Monitoring will be supported by approximately 4,000 CCTV cameras linked to control-room operations.
The reported traffic projections underline the operational challenge facing Ahmedabad’s western road network: demand is set to rise during a concentrated time window, while construction barricades, diversions and event parking are reducing available road space. The police deployment is scheduled to remain focused on traffic control, crowd movement and security during the Navratri period.
