Good news for Vrindavan pedestrians! The town has passed a law prohibiting vehicles from outside Vrindavan entering the town on weekends. The same system will be effective on holidays.
These arrangements will be implemented from the night of January 22 and will be in place for a one-month trial period.
The rule will be applied from Friday night until Sunday night and on holidays. Four-wheeler vehicles coming from the Yamuna Expressway, Mathura or from the NH2 Chattikara Road will all be redirected to parking lots outside the Parikrama Marg perimeter.
Weekends and holidays are times when thousands of devotees come for darshan from surrounding areas, from Gaziabad to Agra, and from Bharatpur to Aligarh and further afar.
The influx of visitors has created a major traffic problem in Vrindavan’s narrow streets and causes a great deal of disturbance to the majority of visitors to the holy town, who are on foot. The narrow lanes also make it harder for traffic police to do very much about it when a single vehicle blocks all movement for lengthy periods of time.
To deal with the problem, Ashutosh Dwivedi (SP Traffic), Vrindavan City Magistrate Vijay Kumar and MVDA (Mathura-Vrindavan Development Authority) architect Mayank Garg jointly surveyed Vrindavan and came up with a traffic plan.
Under the plan, from Friday night until Sunday night vehicles from outside of Vrindavan will have their entry restricted. These vehicles will be redirected to parking lots outside the perimeter. 60 official vehicles will be stationed at the parking lots in order to bring the pilgrims to the temples and Parikrama Marg.
The arrangements have been made as follows:
- Cars coming from the Expressway will be parked on the Yamuna floodplain near the Panigaon bridge.
- Cars coming from Mathura will be directed to the parking lot on the Mant Road near the 100-Bed Hospital and the Pagal Baba temple.
- Those coming from NH2 and Chattikara will be sent to Annapurna Parking near Rukmini Vihar
Barriers will be placed on the main routes
SP (Traffic) Ashutosh Dwivedi said traffic barriers will be installed on the main entry points to the holy town. For the time being, impermanent barriers will be used, but technologically more advanced electronic barriers will be phased in before the end of the one month trial period.
Said Madhumangal Shukla, a BVHA activist, “Some people think that pilgrimage and tourism will be affected adversely by such restrictions. But pilgrimage should be a little difficult. In previous times, the teerth brahmins would travel far and wide and bring groups of people walking to the Dham. Sometimes people would walk hundreds of miles just to die in the Holy Dham. That is what holy places are for. You walk meditatively and you reflect on your life and your relation with God. It was the walking there that was the seat of the power of pilgrimage. And those who stay permanently dedicate themselves to a life of bhajan and sadhan, serving the holy place as it was meant to be served.”
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