Commuters carry heavy luggage by hand as public transport was sparse in Patna on Friday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Feb. 17: Visitors to the Global Summit today found the state capital picture perfect but diversion to make their life easy was a perfect formula to leave commuters stranded.

This morning, the city was very different from its usual avatar. There were no garbage dumps. The thoroughfares were spick and span. Cops were on duty on the streets from early morning. But regular commuters found the going tough, as public transport was sparse.

Many autorickshaw drivers decided to take a day off realising they would not be able to ply on their regular routes because of traffic diversions. Buses were rare as well. As a result, commuters were stuck at various places on their way to work.

“The police should have released a detailed list of traffic diversions at least a couple of days in advance. The information was published in newspapers this morning but it was incomplete. I kept waiting for an auto rickshaw for at least an hour-and-a-half near AN Sinha Institute. I had no clue that the autos were not allowed to pick up passengers from the spot today and were parked near Gol Ghar. As a result, I reached my workplace in Danapur two hours late,” Kumar Abhishek, a bank employee, told The Telegraph.

The traffic diversions were put in place in the afternoon. All the roads towards SK Memorial Hall — the main venue of the global summit — were blocked at 2pm, nearly an hour before the meet began. This led to traffic snarls in different parts of the city, including Income Tax roundabout, Hartali Mor and Patna-Danapur road.

Traffic was not allowed to move towards the Secretariat area along Bailey Road.

“My destination was Ashok Rajpath but I had to take a circuitous route. After reaching Hartali Mor, I was forced to enter Boring Road roundabout because of a diversion ahead. The road towards the High Court roundabout was also closed. I had to go towards Rajapur Pul and then, again after some diversions, I reached the area near the Children’s Park,” said Patna City resident Rajkumar Jha.

The absence of autorickshaws also irked many commuters.

“I started from Kurji in an autorickshaw but the driver just dropped me midway, as he could not progress any further because of road diversions. I had to walk an hour to reach the Boring Road roundabout and then two more hours to my destination near Gandhi Maidan,” said Sandeep Sinha, another commuter.

Police, however, claimed that they did their best to not to inconvenience commuters.

“The diversions were in place only for two hours in the afternoon. The Prime Minister of Nepal, Baburam Bhattarai, was in town. So, we had to make special arrangements. But a large number of policemen were deployed to ensure people did not face problems,” said a senior police officer.