Sharjah: Sharjah-bound traffic on almost every road was reduced to a nightmarish crawl after Thursday’s fire on King Faisal Road Thursday.
Traffic was blocked from both sides of King Faisal road as municipal cleaners were busy clearing the debris of the massive fire in Sharjah high-rise tower.
Rush-hour traffic was badly affected by the blaze, with motorists coming from Dubai facing severe delays.
Some motorists said their regular Thursday evening rush hour journey takes them 90 minutes from Dubai, but on Thursday motorists were stuck in traffic from double that time.
Vehicles entering King Faisal street from Al Wahda street and other roads were diverted until the falling debris was cleared.
Tailbacks
Many motorists driving home hoping for an early weekend said they had to endure a "horrific" ride as massive tailbacks clogged all major roads, including Al Ittihad, Mohammad Bin Zayed Road and even the Al Garhoud and Al Mamzar toll gates.
“It was not the usual traffic we see everyday on our way back,” said Indian executive Mazhar Khan, 33.
“I left work early so I could take my family out for a movie but we had to cancel all plans after I got stuck in traffic on Al Ittihad road for what seems like eternity,” added Khan who lives in Sharjah’s Al Majaz and works in Dubai.
“It was so bad that my car, already running low on fuel, even came to a sudden halt once and I am sure I wasn’t the only one who faced such a problem,” Khan told Gulf News at 6.20 pm, having barely passed the Al Mamzar toll gate after leaving his Al Barsha office at half past four.
Not far from where Khan stays, on King Faisal street, traffic was blocked from both sides as municipal cleaners were busy clearing the debris of the fire in the 24-storey residential building.
Vehicles entering the stretch from Al Wahda street and other roads were diverted until the falling debris was cleared.
“We were not the only ones affected,” said Gomzy Ghosh, 38, another motorist stuck on the same stretch. “My friends who were calling to check on me said even they were stuck on other roads. One said his car hadn’t moved for over 15 minutes from in front of Wafi City,” Ghosh said.
Love is... Getting stuck for hours in traffic on the Dubai-Sharjah road to see your love 😘. Traffic… https://t.co/kVGT5OvttZ— Ed Laagland (@EdwinLaagland) October 1, 2015
@RTA_Dubai traffic as worse as it can get on by pass road to sharjah so many cars driving on hard shoulder :(— Jamil T (@jamilrockz) October 1, 2015
There is a traffic congestion on: - Al Ittihad Rd. toward Sharjah. - SMBZ Rd. toward Sharjah. - Nad Al Hammar Rd. toward Sharjah.— نمشان شنيمر (@955shnemr_nmsha) October 1, 2015
Fancied a quick trip to Sharjah after worl. It has taken me an hour and a half to drive from festival city to Qusais #Dubai #Traffic— Abdul Karim Hanif (@Abdulkarimhanif) October 1, 2015
"Tragic" is how Pakistani Ammar Akhtar described his drive back home to Al Qusais from his office in Business Bay. “I haven’t seen worse traffic than this,” he added after taking almost two hours to reach home.
Radio stations and twitter too were abuzz with stories of weekend traffic coming to a standstill.
(Abhishek Sengupta is with XPRESS, a sister paper of Gulf News)
