Many from Patna are headed north, but not all roads are leading them there. The hurdle is Gandhi Setu, which connects Patna with north Bihar.
Traffic snarls on the 5.575km bridge for the past 24 hours is an impediment to all those heading home in the north Bihar districts for Chhath.
Buses full of passengers, private cars and SUVs are virtually crawling over the dilapidated bridge.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar saw the queue on the bridge, while inspecting Chhath ghats from a steamer on Friday, and virtually lost his cool. "I have been asking officials to construct pontoon bridges parallel to Gandhi Setu since 2014 but no one paid heed to my suggestion," he told officials who were accompanying him. "I hope the work would be done now."
Work on construction of two pontoon bridges - from Chakarsan Ghat (Bidupur) in Vaishali to Jamindari Ghat in Patna - is under way. Sources said delay in releasing funds has stalled construction of the bridges.
"The traffic jam is happening because of sudden pressure on the bridge, as everybody from north Bihar wants to go home for Chhath and there is only one bridge connecting Patna to the north," said a traffic personnel posted on Gandhi Setu on condition of anonymity. "Another reason is the bottleneck caused by the narrow 1km stretch, from pillar number 36 to 46, as one lane is damaged."
Vehicles coming from both sides have to use the same lane, alternately.
The biggest sufferers because of the traffic jam are the commuters.
Kankerbagh resident Prabhakar Prasad, struck in a traffic jam while on his way to his native village of Phulparas in Madhubani district, said: "I boarded this bus around 12noon. There was a huge traffic jam on the entire stretch from the bypass to Hajipur. It took me over two and half hours to reach just Hajipur." Hajipur is just around 25km north of Patna.
"Traffic on the Setu is crawling, but at least all vehicles are moving," Patna traffic superintendent of police (SP) P.K. Das said.
Because of the sudden increase in traffic volume on the Setu, other roads leading to Patna are also feeling the heat. Vehicles were moving at a snail's pace from Zero Mile to Anisabad.
The entire 10km stretch saw long queues of vehicles on both lanes. Similarly, the Patna-Bakhtiyarpur section of NH 30 saw long queues of vehicles on both sides.
Traffic police sources said the traffic jam on the bridge will persist for the next 2-3 days and it will ease only after Chhath ends. For the next two days, on Saturday and Sunday, there will be a huge rush of vehicles towards north Bihar, which will extend on Monday and Tuesday too, as there will be a rush of vehicles returning to Patna from north Bihar.
