New Delhi, Oct. 16 -- Traffic across the Capital came to a grinding halt on Wednesday, as festive rush in the run-up to Diwali and Bhai Dooj led to vehicles lining up bumper-to-bumper on key arterial and main roads. Senior police officers warned the situation may worsen from Thursday, as lakhs of people will throng markets and public spaces to shop for gifts, on the occasion of Dhanteras. Among the worst hit roads were the Outer Ring Road and Ring Road in south Delhi, Mathura Road between Pragati Maidan and Badarpur border, Aurobindo Marg, Barapullah elevated road, Delhi Noida Direct (DND) Flyway, Delhi-Meerut Expressway, National Highway-9, and all roads connecting Delhi with Gurugram. The situation was exacerbated during the evening rush hour, as officegoers added to the chaos. Traffic police officers said haphazard parking and parking space were causing jams, especially around major shopping hubs, such as Connaught Place, Lajpat Nagar, Sarojini Nagar, Karol Bagh, Laxmi Nagar, Kamla Nagar, Sadar Bazaar, Chandni Chowk, and Pitampura. "We have doubled the deployment of traffic personnel on streets across the city. Traffic jams are also being monitored through CCTV cameras and Google Maps, and accordingly, instructions are being issued to personnel to clear the affected roads. In central Delhi itself, personnel are deployed at all radials of the key roundabouts to manually regulate the flow of vehicles. While we are doing our best, we also urge the public for maximum use of public transports and avoid roadside parking," said additional commissioner of police (traffic) Dinesh Kumar Gupta. Most roads and routes across Delhi-NCR appeared as crimson streaks on realtime traffic maps, indicating high traffic volume and increased travel time. Motorists were left ruing the conditions and many stuck commuters took to social media to vent their frustration. "@dtptraffic stuck in one place for 30 mins now. Why isn't there an advisory if you were planning to stop traffic? Arterial road of capital city blocked without prior notification. Great work. Nothing says we mean business more," a commuter named Om Routray posted on X, along with two photographs showing standstill traffic. "I saw many school buses stuck on roads in south Delhi. Not only commuters, even schoolchildren faced massive traffic jams in the morning. My daughter's school bus took at least an hour and 15 minutes to reach our neighbourhood in East of Kailash from Lodhi Estate. The usual travel time is just 30 minutes," said Karan Aggarwal, a resident of East of Kailash....